PPP MNA urges govt to cut lavish expenditures
ISLAMABAD:
A female parliamentarian from the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) snubbed the government’s economic policies in the National Assembly on Thursday amid reports of a possible ‘revolt’ by the Punjab chapter of ruling party’s women’s wing against its top leadership.
Begum Nasim Akhtar Chaudhry, who heads a powerful house panel on law, said she was ‘ashamed that her PPP is deviating from its manifesto’ of providing people with food, clothing and shelter (roti, kapra aur makan).
Chaudhry said the official economic endeavours announced in the budget have nothing for poor masses and advised the government to take immediate steps to cut its ‘lavish’ expenditures.
“This budget will widen the gulf between the rich and poor,” Nasim said in her speech during an ongoing budget debate in the lower house.
Her harsh comments came a day after PPP women wing chief MNA Faryal Talpur, the sister of President Asif Ali Zardari, sought collective resignations from female members of the Punjab assembly belonging to the party.
The surprise move, according to media reports, was primarily aimed at eliminating one of the members hostile to Zardari and his handling of the party but insiders said there was much more behind it.
MPA Sajida Mir, a close associate of former premier Benazir Bhutto’s political secretary Naheed Khan, was at the heart of a controversy that led Talpur to call all female members from Punjab to Islamabad for resignation.
Mir, according to insiders, was convincing fellow female members to rise against Talpur, whom Zardari made the head of party’s women wing after he took over as PPP co-chairperson early 2008.
Naheed Khan and her husband, Senator Safdar Abbasi, were sidelined after the death of Benazir Bhutto, who kept both of them closest to her politics during her life.
Officials of the party said revolt against Talpur has apparently spread from Punjab to other places as well and might be behind Nasim’s outburst against the party.
Nasim, who otherwise maintains a low profile, might have lured into criticism on the PPP by the same reason.
Chaudhry questioned why the government could not act upon an austerity plan it announced last year. “How long we will continue to hear that Pakistan is going through a critical phase of history,” she remarked.
She ridiculed that loans from the IMF were being used on buying bulletproof vehicles, maintaining a huge cabinet and funding a lavish lifestyle of a ‘select few’.
Taking part in the debate, several members from the government as well as opposition parties rejected a proposal that the agriculture sector should be taxed.
Lawmakers from Sindh and Khyber-Pukhtunkhwa ridiculed their counterparts from Punjab for supporting Kalabagh dam.
Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Shahid Khaqan Abbasi termed the budget unsustainable, arguing that a major chunk of the money is going for debt servicing and defence.
Published in the Express Tribune, June 18th, 2010.
A female parliamentarian from the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) snubbed the government’s economic policies in the National Assembly on Thursday amid reports of a possible ‘revolt’ by the Punjab chapter of ruling party’s women’s wing against its top leadership.
Begum Nasim Akhtar Chaudhry, who heads a powerful house panel on law, said she was ‘ashamed that her PPP is deviating from its manifesto’ of providing people with food, clothing and shelter (roti, kapra aur makan).
Chaudhry said the official economic endeavours announced in the budget have nothing for poor masses and advised the government to take immediate steps to cut its ‘lavish’ expenditures.
“This budget will widen the gulf between the rich and poor,” Nasim said in her speech during an ongoing budget debate in the lower house.
Her harsh comments came a day after PPP women wing chief MNA Faryal Talpur, the sister of President Asif Ali Zardari, sought collective resignations from female members of the Punjab assembly belonging to the party.
The surprise move, according to media reports, was primarily aimed at eliminating one of the members hostile to Zardari and his handling of the party but insiders said there was much more behind it.
MPA Sajida Mir, a close associate of former premier Benazir Bhutto’s political secretary Naheed Khan, was at the heart of a controversy that led Talpur to call all female members from Punjab to Islamabad for resignation.
Mir, according to insiders, was convincing fellow female members to rise against Talpur, whom Zardari made the head of party’s women wing after he took over as PPP co-chairperson early 2008.
Naheed Khan and her husband, Senator Safdar Abbasi, were sidelined after the death of Benazir Bhutto, who kept both of them closest to her politics during her life.
Officials of the party said revolt against Talpur has apparently spread from Punjab to other places as well and might be behind Nasim’s outburst against the party.
Nasim, who otherwise maintains a low profile, might have lured into criticism on the PPP by the same reason.
Chaudhry questioned why the government could not act upon an austerity plan it announced last year. “How long we will continue to hear that Pakistan is going through a critical phase of history,” she remarked.
She ridiculed that loans from the IMF were being used on buying bulletproof vehicles, maintaining a huge cabinet and funding a lavish lifestyle of a ‘select few’.
Taking part in the debate, several members from the government as well as opposition parties rejected a proposal that the agriculture sector should be taxed.
Lawmakers from Sindh and Khyber-Pukhtunkhwa ridiculed their counterparts from Punjab for supporting Kalabagh dam.
Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Shahid Khaqan Abbasi termed the budget unsustainable, arguing that a major chunk of the money is going for debt servicing and defence.
Published in the Express Tribune, June 18th, 2010.