Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Raja Riaz Ahmad on Monday declared that political stability came in the country and now the government had no excuse not to deliver and provide relief to the masses – just two months before it completed its five-year constitutional term.
While opening the budget debate amid an almost empty house, the opposition leader came up with an ‘out-of-the-box solution’ for tackling the ongoing economic crisis, saying the government could easily say goodbye to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) if it took out natural resources buried under the mountains.
The opposition leader regretted that the government was not taking any advantage of the natural resources and was going to the IMF for $2 billion when the natural resources worth billions of dollars were buried under mountains.
He was confident that Pakistan did not need any bailout packages or monetary support from anyone if untapped resources were unearthed – might be by just digging the mountains.
In a complaining tone, he noted that the government was neither taking advantage of the political stability nor of the untapped natural resources. Also, Ahmad shared another easy way of bringing dollars in the country: reduce electricity and gas prices for industrial sector as the current prices had forced them to close the mills.
He declared that Pakistan would not need any financial help if the industries started functioning to the fullest.
Before one could think that he did not have any solution to reduce 29 per cent inflation in the country, Ahmad surprised many by saying that 25 per cent to 30 per cent inflation could be reduced by restoring the price control magistrate system. This way, he felt, the poor would be able to bring food to the table.
At a time when the opposition leader was providing ways to fix economic woes and offering magical solutions to deal with other issues, only a handful of lawmakers were present in the assembly. Only four lawmakers were present in the first rows of the treasury and opposition benches when Ahmad kicked off the budget debate.
In his speech, the opposition leader while lauding India for being ahead of Pakistan in the agriculture sector said that agriculture was the backbone of the country yet “neither we produce quality seed nor per acre yield can be compared with India”.
Admitting that India was way ahead of Pakistan in agriculture sector, Ahmad regretted that there was no focus on doing research in this sector in Pakistan, saying: “Everyone knows about the kind of research being conducted in the agricultural universities, including one in my hometown Faisalabad.”
Ahmad encouraged the government to take some meaningful steps in this regard so that Pakistan could come in a competing position if it could not defeat India in the agriculture sector, saying: “A strong agricultural sector ensures national security and can reduce annual import bill.”
In his speech, the opposition leader also drew the government’s attention towards education, health and IT sectors.
On education, which he pronounced as “Taleem” in Urdu, Ahmad said that the government had only allocated Rs70 billion for education of which only Rs5 billion had been allocated for education development.
“I regret to say that it’s a joke with us,” he said. “If this government can’t provide books, uniform, quality education and bring the government schools at par with the private schools then the country can’t progress.”
He told the handful of lawmakers, who were also found busy discussing other things at the back benches, schools were still functioning under the trees in his constituency. He said the school buildings were missing roofs, fans and washrooms, among other things, saying these things needed to be fixed. On health, he prayed that “may no one be forced to go to government hospitals because those who have been there know how bad the situation is”.
He said Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had ensured free medicine being the Punjab chief minister, saying that he should do it again as he was the PM now. On the IT sector, he said that it was “our future and the amount allocated for the IT sector should be increased”. At one point in his speech, Ahmad while admitting that time was short and dams could not be built to generate electricity said that the government should allow import of readymade solar panels to provide immediate relief to the masses.
He took a jibe at a former chief justice of Pakistan for collecting funds for dams. The opposition leader was content with the increase in salaries of government employees, saying he appreciated the government’s decision of a raise of 30 to 35 per cent. However, he demanded that pension should also be increased to 30% from 17.5%.
During his speech, Ahmad regretted supporting former premier Imran Khan, saying: “We accept our mistake and seek pardon for supporting Imran Khan; it was our biggest mistake; we were carried away.”
Making everyone smile, one backbencher shouted: “You are pardoned.”
He, however, lashed out at the former PM, saying the disgruntled PTI members were standing tall in the assembly when Imran can’t even face the public. NA Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, however, expunged two of his words used for Imran Khan.
On his request, the speaker directed the interior and law ministers to give a statement on Tuesday (today) about the action taken against the May 9 attackers.
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