LAHORE: The united opposition in the Punjab Assembly continued to heckle the finance minister throughout her budget speech, making her nervous in the beginning.

Though Dr Ayesha Ghaus Pasha, the wife of ex-federal finance minister Hafeez A.

Pasha, regained her confidence after a while amid thumping by her colleagues on treasury benches, she took more than expected time to complete her speech.

Towards the end of her speech, Ms Pasha became more emphatic while quoting certain figures showing financial health of the province.

Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif and cabinet colleagues of Ms Pasha congratulated her for speaking non-stop for one and a half hour. Members of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, PPP, Muslim League-Q and Jamaat-i-Islami members would shout `jhoot, jhoot (it`s all a lie)` whenever Dr Pasha would quote some statistics showing performance of the Shahbaz government or allocations for various sectors.

Intermittently, they would also raise anti-government slogans besides thumping their desks using budgetary books and creating cracker-like sound in the house.

PTIMPA Sadia SuhailRana waved a placard in the house but she folded it back and sat down when Speaker Rana Muhammad Iqbal directed his staff tograbthepaperfromher.

The speaker would occasionally make his presence felt and make appeals for order in the house when the commotion created by the opposition would cross limits.

A couple of opposition members also tore down the written speech of Ms Pasha that was distributed among the MPAs at start of the session.