Woman MNA returns fuel card in protest

ISLAMABAD:

During the debate on the budget in the National Assembly, members protested against the increase in prices of petroleum products and inflation.

Saira Bano, chairperson of the Standing Committee on Poverty Alleviation, returned her official fuel card to the assembly secretariat in protest. Bano told the house that when the daily-wage earners were forced to commit suicide, “how can I keep a fuel card?”

Shagufta Jamani of the PPP said that the government should have made the budgetary allocation for religious seminaries, adding that there should be checks and balances on it. She stressed that the solution to the problems facing the country lay not with the technocrats but with the politicians.

Read Opp demands withdrawal of fuel price hike

Mir Munawar Talpur stressed the need for focusing on agriculture. Dr Fehmida Mirza said that the government had claimed that prices would not be increased, adding that people have burned their rickshaws in protest against fuel price hike.

Noor Alam Khan told the house that he was paying from his own pocket for the fuel he used in his vehicle. He criticised the former prime minister, who, he said, used helicopter to go to a meeting. The session was adjourned till Monday.