Opposition, MQM embarrass government in budget debate
ISLAMABAD:
The government faced embarrassment in both chambers of parliament on Tuesday as not only the opposition but also its staunchest ally, the MQM, launched a blistering attack on the new budget and staged separate walkouts.
The opposition in the National Assembly called for addressing ‘structural imbalances’ in Pakistan’s economy and bringing agriculture under the tax net before it staged a walkout that was also joined by one of the government’s key allies to protest price hike and ‘visionless’ budget.
At the opening day of debate on budget in both the houses of parliament, the government suffered multiple setbacks when its economic policies came under fire from both sides of the political spectrum.
It was Opposition Leader Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan who identified several loopholes in the budget-making that, he said, could have been plugged by adopting austerity measures.
“This budget doesn’t look to have any vision, any manifesto. It doesn’t address structural imbalances of the economy and lacks direction,” Nisar said of the budget in his close to two-hour speech.
He later led a token walkout of members from his Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and other opposition groups against what he described as ‘lack of vision’ in the budget-making process.
Immediately after opposition’s walkout, members from the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) also boycotted the sitting for what they claimed discrimination against Karachi in recent increase in power tariffs.
State Information Minister Samsam Bokhari attempted to put up a defence of the government’s economic policies and budget-making but he apparently failed to match Nisar’s fiery harangue.
Nisar proposed that the government should evolve a mechanism of parliamentary oversight of spending money allocated for various departments of the federal government.
His opinion was that either a special parliamentary panel of all parties or the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) could be assigned this task which, he said, would help overcome unbridled corruption.
He was also critical of the decision of allowing a 50 per cent ad hoc relief in the salaries of the federal government’s employees with an argument that it might put the provinces in a difficult situation to match the increase.
Nisar, whose PML-N has several landlords in its ranks, came up with a demand to tax the key agriculture sector to broaden the base for taxation. His demand was strongly supported by the MQM, which maintains an urban outlook and has been critical of feudalistic influence in Pakistan’s politics.
He asked the central government to share the burden of extra 25 percent of the basic pay which the provincial governments would have to announce for its employees.
In the Senate also, the MQM staged a walkout to protest the increase in electricity rates in Karachi.
Senators from the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) also walked out, protesting that funds for the tribal belt have not been increased in the budget. Senator Abbas Khan said that Fata Senators will continue to boycott the budget session till funds for their region are increased in the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP).
Meanwhile, Leader of the Opposition Senator Wasim Sajjad opened the budget debate. He said that when this government presented its first and second budgets, the general notion was that it was a new government and hence it should be given time to tackle the economic situation. However, he added, the third budget of this government has shattered all hopes of the poorer sections of society.
He also said that the government should not reject the Kalabagh Dam project. He called for consultations with the governments of Sindh and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa to allay the concerns of the two provinces regarding the dam.
Parliamentary leader of the PPML-N Ishaq Dar said that the government should provide a clear road map for economic recovery. He charged that an increase in GDP was shown only after merging the GDP ratios of the last two years. Dishing out some statistics of his own, Dar said that the purchasing power of the people has been reduced by 22 per cent while the electricity rates have gone up by 60 per cent. He further said that 70 per cent of the population is earning less than 2 US dollars a day. He said that simply freezing the non-developmental budget will not improve the situation, and called for slashing the non-developmental budget, too.
However, he appreciated the increase in the defence budget.
Raza Rabbani of PPP said that his party had opposed the privatisation of the Karachi Electric Supply Corporation (KESC) by the previous government. “We were told by the government of the day that privatisation would bring in fresh investment into the KESC but that has not happened”. Saying that, under the law, the KESC could be re-nationalised Rabbani called upon the government to take over the power utility.
Published in the Express Tribune, June 9th, 2010.
The government faced embarrassment in both chambers of parliament on Tuesday as not only the opposition but also its staunchest ally, the MQM, launched a blistering attack on the new budget and staged separate walkouts.
The opposition in the National Assembly called for addressing ‘structural imbalances’ in Pakistan’s economy and bringing agriculture under the tax net before it staged a walkout that was also joined by one of the government’s key allies to protest price hike and ‘visionless’ budget.
At the opening day of debate on budget in both the houses of parliament, the government suffered multiple setbacks when its economic policies came under fire from both sides of the political spectrum.
It was Opposition Leader Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan who identified several loopholes in the budget-making that, he said, could have been plugged by adopting austerity measures.
“This budget doesn’t look to have any vision, any manifesto. It doesn’t address structural imbalances of the economy and lacks direction,” Nisar said of the budget in his close to two-hour speech.
He later led a token walkout of members from his Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and other opposition groups against what he described as ‘lack of vision’ in the budget-making process.
Immediately after opposition’s walkout, members from the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) also boycotted the sitting for what they claimed discrimination against Karachi in recent increase in power tariffs.
State Information Minister Samsam Bokhari attempted to put up a defence of the government’s economic policies and budget-making but he apparently failed to match Nisar’s fiery harangue.
Nisar proposed that the government should evolve a mechanism of parliamentary oversight of spending money allocated for various departments of the federal government.
His opinion was that either a special parliamentary panel of all parties or the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) could be assigned this task which, he said, would help overcome unbridled corruption.
He was also critical of the decision of allowing a 50 per cent ad hoc relief in the salaries of the federal government’s employees with an argument that it might put the provinces in a difficult situation to match the increase.
Nisar, whose PML-N has several landlords in its ranks, came up with a demand to tax the key agriculture sector to broaden the base for taxation. His demand was strongly supported by the MQM, which maintains an urban outlook and has been critical of feudalistic influence in Pakistan’s politics.
He asked the central government to share the burden of extra 25 percent of the basic pay which the provincial governments would have to announce for its employees.
In the Senate also, the MQM staged a walkout to protest the increase in electricity rates in Karachi.
Senators from the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) also walked out, protesting that funds for the tribal belt have not been increased in the budget. Senator Abbas Khan said that Fata Senators will continue to boycott the budget session till funds for their region are increased in the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP).
Meanwhile, Leader of the Opposition Senator Wasim Sajjad opened the budget debate. He said that when this government presented its first and second budgets, the general notion was that it was a new government and hence it should be given time to tackle the economic situation. However, he added, the third budget of this government has shattered all hopes of the poorer sections of society.
He also said that the government should not reject the Kalabagh Dam project. He called for consultations with the governments of Sindh and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa to allay the concerns of the two provinces regarding the dam.
Parliamentary leader of the PPML-N Ishaq Dar said that the government should provide a clear road map for economic recovery. He charged that an increase in GDP was shown only after merging the GDP ratios of the last two years. Dishing out some statistics of his own, Dar said that the purchasing power of the people has been reduced by 22 per cent while the electricity rates have gone up by 60 per cent. He further said that 70 per cent of the population is earning less than 2 US dollars a day. He said that simply freezing the non-developmental budget will not improve the situation, and called for slashing the non-developmental budget, too.
However, he appreciated the increase in the defence budget.
Raza Rabbani of PPP said that his party had opposed the privatisation of the Karachi Electric Supply Corporation (KESC) by the previous government. “We were told by the government of the day that privatisation would bring in fresh investment into the KESC but that has not happened”. Saying that, under the law, the KESC could be re-nationalised Rabbani called upon the government to take over the power utility.
Published in the Express Tribune, June 9th, 2010.