The government pushed its second budget through the National Assembly with ease on Saturday amid some gestures to the PPP ahead of threatened anti-government protests.
The final vote on the Finance Bill, 2014, gave effect to the new budget unveiled on June 3.
It was followed by the adoption of a total of 111 supplementary demands for expenditures made in excess of the outgoing year’s budget and what was called “excess demands” for non-budgeted expenditures made in financial years between 2004-5 and 2007-8.
The new finance bill was adopted with several amendments moved by Finance Minister Ishaq Dar to incorporate concessions he announced in a speech to the house at the end of the general debate on Tuesday.
All opposition amendments were rejected.
The government moved a resolution to pay homage to the slain leader PPP Benazir Bhutto to mark her 61st birthday.
The resolution, moved by Science and Technology Minister Zahid Hamid and unanimously adopted by the house, praised Ms Bhutto for her “indomitable courage and will to fight against extremism and tyranny” and said the house “salutes her single-minded determination to eliminate the scourge of terrorism and pays tribute to her incomparable services for a democratic Pakistan for which she ultimately laid down her life”.
