Budget debate: Lawmakers question validity of budget without census

Say govt prepared budget without taking its own MPs into confidence

ISLAMABAD: The government on Wednesday faced harsh criticism from all quarters as opposition lawmakers in the National Assembly questioned validity of a the federal budget without proper estimation of the country’s population while some ruling party MPs also took the government to task over some of its policies.

The debate session on the budget continued till afternoon as unlike the usual practice nobody from the treasury or opposition benches pointed out the lack of quorum despite the fact that attendance in the house was very low.

The PTI lawmaker Dawar Khan Kundi started the debate by saying that the budget was without any focus and was a manifestation of criminal negligence. “How the government can assess the allocation to provinces when it has exactly no idea about the population of these regions,” he said.

He said population of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) was much higher than the government estimates, based on which funds were being distributed. He warned that the phenomenon of discrimination against a province had cost the country its eastern arm in 1971.

The MQM MNA Salman Baloch said the budget was more of a political announcement considering 2017 to be the election year. “The budget is nothing but a jugglery of statistics,” he claimed. He said all the provinces were ready but the government once again postponed the population census, as according to him, the ruling party wants to enter the next general elections on the basis of old stats.



Talking with reference to population census, PTI’s Shahryar Afridi asked as to how could head of a family plan if he did not know the number of members in his family.

“It is incomprehensible as how budget, Vision 2025 and other such policies are finalised without having census since 1998,” he said, adding that the government’s performance was evident from the recent economic survey as it was unable to achieve any of its targets.

Abdul Qahar Wadan of PkMAP also backed members from opposition benches and said there was no allocation for census in the budget, which, he said, reflected the unwillingness of the government to hold fresh headcount in the country.

The dull mood of the house was lightened up when a ruling party MNA from Kasur, Rana Hayat Khan, hit the podium and criticised the government’s policies in a humorous style that left the lawmakers giggling and desk-thumping.

“I will not get into details about the situation of electricity but I will request the government to at least maintain the schedule of load-shedding which was there prior to Ramazan,” he remarked.

He also criticised the government for not putting a ban or at least increasing taxes on imported milk so that local industry could flourish. He also asked the government to withdraw all kind of taxes on the agriculture sector if it wanted to save the sector.

“I wonder if Finance Minister Ishaq Dar will pay any heed to this urgent demand,” he added.

Another lawmaker from the ruling party Sheikh Fayyaz Ud Din said that there should be tax exemptions on ‘tractor and trolleys’ along with other agriculture related machinery.

On a point of order, PPP’s Shazia Marri said the criticism from government benches on budget showed government MNAs were also not taken into confidence before its presentation in the house. The ruling PML-N MNA Mian Abdul Manan requested Speaker Ayaz Sadiq that the budget approval process be completed by June 20 instead of June 21 as many of the lawmakers had to go for Umra.

Sadiq replied that he would request the Senate chairperson to send proposals at the earliest.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 16^th, 2016.