Most legislators appear clueless about budget

Except the first three years of General Pervez Musharraf’s regime (1999-2002), we have maintained the appearances of a parliamentary democracy in this country since 1985. Considering the financial demands made annually by all ministries, state institutions and departments, as well as public representatives and approving them by a majority vote, remain the key functions of an elected parliament in this form of government.

Since its transformation into a security state over the years, Pakistan has managed to distort this form in a unique way. Its public representatives are just not allowed to discuss or to oversee the colossal amount of funds consumed in the name of defence. The ‘immunity’ conceded to this sector has encouraged other branches of government to employ devious methods to camouflage their actual balance sheets.

Denied the right to know the full details of their financial demands, elected representatives are also asked to approve dubious means employed by the government to increase its resources. Most legislators, even very experienced ones, often appear clueless about these revenue-increasing tricks. Parliamentary reporters are equally ignorant, including yours truly.

Hafeez Sheikh, a ‘security-cleared’ technocrat and a darling of donor agencies, boasted that his proposed broad-based General Sales Tax would markedly increase revenues when he announced his first budget last year.

Although they hate each other for a variety of reasons, the PML-N and the MQM aggressively resisted this move. Both were playing up to their respective urban constituencies. But they argued their case by pointing out that since the elected assemblies in Pakistan were packed with the feudal aristocracy, they see to it that the burden of taxation falls on the urban sector, while they protect their own windfall gains from the tax net. The ‘middle-class-friendly-media’ fully supported and promoted this spin. This compelled the Zardari-Gilani government to propose a budget for next year based on a seemingly equitable tax burden across the board.

But this was done not by making the provinces tax the incomes of rich agriculturists but by withdrawing sales tax exemptions on agricultural inputs.  However, thanks to the usual arrogance of a ‘technocrat,’ the finance minister did not bother to take even the ruling party legislators on board before making this move. He took it for granted that the top PPP leadership would garner the required number of votes to pass the proposals. His presumptions are about to come crashing down.

Funnily, it was an unassuming member of the ruling party, Nadeem Afzal Chann who mobilised a small group of relatively young legislators from central Punjab to block the move. They are not big landholders, but thanks to modern education, they have mastered the means to get the most from their lands and market the produce aggressively. Ironic, it may sound, but historically they and their elders had always been associated with the ‘pro-poor left wing’ of the PPP.

Last weekend, a group of 20 PPP MNAs led by Chann formally requested the Prime Minister for a meeting. As already reported in this column, Yousaf Raza Gilani had a lengthy meeting with them on Thursday afternoon. ‘The feudal from Multan’ appears to have failed in alleviating their concerns, however. By the time this column was written, the group was reported to have increased its strength to 35 MNAs. The 15 new entrants to the group are all from rural Sindh elected on PPP tickets. Nawab Yousaf Talpur has joined them as well. I also have it from credible sources that a good number of PML-Q members have also expressed support for the group.

Before the finance minister tabled the budget, President Zardari had ensured smooth passage of the budget by winning over the support of the PML-Q and the MQM. But the conduct of the friend-to-all-sincere-to-none Gilani failed to harness this support into a winning combination. And Hafeez Sheikh punctured the feel-good balloon with the incurable arrogance of a technocrat. It is becoming increasingly obvious that President Zardari has to work overtime again to keep his party strength intact by another series of relentless meetings to appease and cajole his colleagues.





Published in The Express Tribune, June 18th, 2011.