PTI minister opposes govt-sponsored bill on MP's salaries in Senate

Opposition senators criticise ‘people-unfriendly’ budget

ISLAMABAD: The government on Wednesday opposed the Members of Parliament (Salaries and Allowances) (Amendment) Bill, 2020 in the Senate, which aimed at availing 25 air tickets provided to the parliamentarians by their family members.

The upper house of parliament began its debate on the budget 2020-21 during the session presided over by Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani. At the outset, Atteeq Shaikh moved a motion for presenting finance standing committee report on the bill on MPs’ salary, which was adopted.

It was the government-sponsored bill moved earlier in the National Assembly on March 9, 2020 by then state minister for parliamentary affairs and later transferred to Senate as a money bill. In the Senate, the bill was moved by Adviser to Prime Minister on Parliamentary Affair Babar Awan on June 5.

The bill was referred to the Standing Committee on Finance for consideration. On Wednesday, committee member Atteeq Shaikh presented the report of the standing committee on the money bill on behalf of the committee chairman.

However, despite being a government bill, Industries Minister Hammad Azhar opposed it, saying that providing 25 business class air tickets aimed at facilitating the parliamentarians in connection with the proceedings of parliament, adding that this facility could not be extended to their family members.

Azhar said that the prime minister himself was reducing his expenses. “It is wrong to use air tickets for the members of parliament for their families. The government opposes this bill,” the minister told the house.

He also mentioned that the additional finance secretary gave the ministry’s opinion on the bill but Standing Committee report said there would be no further burden on the national exchequer as the facility was already being availed by the members.

The chair pointed out that this bill was introduced by the government itself in the National Assembly. PML-N Senator Javed Abbasi said it was regrettable that the minister did not know that it was a government’s bill. He added that government was giving wrong information just to stay in the news.

During the session, Chairman of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), member policy, member customs and member income tax were also present in the gallery on the direction of the Senate chairman. However, some officials left the house 40 minutes later.



During the debate on the budget, opposition members, including Javed Abbasi, Kulsoom Parveen, Sassui Palijo, Mushtaq, Manzoor Kakar, Abdul Ghafoor Haideri and others said that it was the budget of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and people-unfriendly.

They said that this was the only budget in which the salaries of employees and pensions had not been increased. They asked how could a deficit budget be a budget for economic growth. They warned the government would not be able to pass the budget if there were cut motions.

Kulsoom Parveen advised the government to talk to its angry partners. Haideri said the government had started tampering with the 18th Amendment. Palijo said that Sindh was pushed to the wall. “Sindh is also discriminated against in the special grant. The budget has also cut NFC Award.”

Senator Aurangzeb and other members of the government said that despite the difficult situation, the government had presented the best budget. They also mentioned the distribution of Rs12,000 each to more than 10 million poor people.

They urged the opposition not to politicise coronavirus situation and stressed the need for working together in the fight against the virus spread. Later, the session was adjourned till 10 am on Friday.

WITH ADDITIONAL INPUR FROM APP