Low attendance again stalls budget passage

Quorum remains treasury's bane on second straight day in NA

ISLAMABAD: The PML-N government on Thursday failed to pass the federal budget for 2018-19 due to lack of quorum in the National Assembly. It was the second consecutive day that the government could not pass the budget due to low attendance from its own members.

The government will now make an all-out effort today (Friday) to pass the bill.

As per the recommendations of the Business Advisory Committee, the budget session was supposed to be prorogued on May 15. However, as the government has not been able to pass the budget, the session is still in progress.

Once the session started – an hour behind schedule – the insufficient presence of legislators was first noted by PTI MNA Shireen Mazari. While pointing out the quorum and pointing towards the empty treasury benches, Dr Mazari said it was “shameful”.



The house remained suspended for one-and-a-half hours, as most PML-N members were attending a PML-N parliamentary committee meeting chaired by Shehbaz Sharif.

Mazari, when the house resumed, criticised the chair for suspending the house for over an hour.

She had already blocked the finance minister Miftah Ismail for concluding the budget debate on Tuesday.

Opposition leader Khursheed Shah said that although theoretically, the government would be able to pass the finance bill, it lacked the moral authority to pass it from the House.



He was of the view that proceedings under the rules and procedures were supposed to take place after half-an-hour when quorum is found breached, but the government took thrice as much time.

He also criticised the government for starting proceedings an hour after the scheduled time.

On this, Speaker Ayaz Sadiq offered to suspend Parliamentary Affairs Minister Shaikh Aftab – the chief whip of the government – for one day. However, the opposition members did not agree and said Aftab has been very punctual in the House throughout the term of the government.

PPPP’s Naveed Qamar later said that it has been decided not to become part of demands for grants or cut motions, so they are walking out while withdrawing their pending motions. Later, PPPP and PTI members staged a walkout from the house but returned after a short while after Aftab negotiated with them.



The House managed to pass all the demands for grants pertaining to different ministries and departments for the next financial year.

The House passed 20 demands for grants of ministries including the Human Rights Division, Industries and Production, Department of Investment Promotion and Supplies, Inter Provincial Coordination, Kashmir Affairs, Law and Justice Division, Narcotics Control, Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development, Postal Services Division, Pakistan Post Office, Privatization Division, Pakistan Railways, FATA, Statistics Division and Water Resources Division.

However, the opposition parties moved a cut motion on these demands for grants.

Finance Minister Miftah Ismail, in the last part of the federal budget, moved “The Finance Bill, 2018 to give legal effect to the budgetary proposals for the next financial year 2018-19.

He assured the House that there would be no increase in prices of petroleum products after increasing the Petroleum Development Levy (PDL). The PDL would increase when oil prices decrease in the international market. He informed that government has given massive tax relief of Rs110 billion to the salaried class by reducing their income rates. There would be complete tax exemption on annual income of Rs1.2 million. He said that government had barred the non-taxpayers from purchasing property and vehicles in order to bring them under the tax net.

Finance Minister clarified that budget deficit for next fiscal year is estimated at around Rs1.89 trillion. He admitted that trade deficit is increasing but expressed hope that it would be controlled as exports are increasing and imports growth is reducing.

The finance minister said that taxpayers in Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Gilgit-Baltistan, and the provinces will also be brought in the active taxpayers' list. He said that sales tax on all fertilisers has been reduced to two per cent from the previous 17 per cent.

As the finance minister was moving towards passing the finance bill, PPP MNA Shugfta Jamani halted proceedings by pointing out quorum in the house.

The deputy speaker, after counting of the members, temporarily suspended the House. The house was later adjourned after a ten-minute break as quorum had still not been met.

With the onset of the proceedings, the House also offered Fateha for Military Intelligence Colonel Sohail Abid who embraced martyrdom in a gunfight with terrorists in Balochistan on Wednesday and the Palestinian protestors who were martyred by Israeli forces in Gaza.

Opposition leader Shah later placed reports of the Public Accounts Committee in the House.

Earlier the Amnesty Scheme of the government for non-filers and undeclared assets was strongly criticised by members of the opposition.

Qamar was of the view that there is no relief for taxpayers while those who are involved in tax evasion are being rewarded with an amnesty scheme. He said the success rate of eight or nine other amnesty schemes was very low.