NA proceedings: Govt earns opposition’s ire during budget debate

PPP said the govt has crushed the masses with the new budget.

ISLAMABAD:

The government and opposition held each other responsible for the country’s dismal economic conditions in the National Assembly session on Sunday.

The budget debate entered its second day in the lower house, where attendance was observed to be slim like it was on numerous occasions in the past.

A member of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf complained that the finance minister was absent and no one was taking note of what opposition members had to say.

To this, Law Minister Zahid Hamid pointed out that the finance secretary and his team had been deputed for taking notes.

Sunday’s proceedings also witnessed an exchange of hot words between Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N).

PPP’s Ayaz Soomro said the budget has crushed the masses and the ‘party of industrialists’ (PML-N) has no feelings for the poor.

The word “labourer” is missing from the entire budget document, he added.



He recalled former prime minister Benazir Bhutto’s services to democracy and expressed dismay over the government’s decision to change the name of Benazir Income Support Programme.

PML-N government is treating Sindh … like a step-mother, Soomro said.

“We should not use references that are not in national interest,” Planning and Development Minister Ahsan Iqbal retorted.

“PPP was a federal party but has been behaving like a regional party,” he added. This triggered a protest from PPP members who objected to the language Ahsan Iqbal used.

Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq tried to calm the government and opposition members down and said Ahsan Iqbal had not used derogatory language.

Arguing over the budget, Awami National Party (ANP) leader and former Chief Minister Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Haider Khan Hoti said the government has not adopted a realistic approach.

Commenting on the announcement to clear circular debt in 60 days, he said the issue would not end unless tariff difference, line losses and theft in the energy sector is tackled.

PTI’s Raja Amir Zaman said the 10% increase in government salaries was not sufficient for employees to sustain inflation. He said the government was in favour of direct taxes but decided to increase GST which was an indirect tax.

Debate on FATA

Shahabuddin Khan from Fata said his region had become centre of the world’s war and was not given attention.

He said Fata was a federal unit but it was not being treated as one in the National Finance Commission (NFC). He urged the government to bring Fata to the mainstream otherwise things would go out of control.

Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam - Fazl’s Akram Khan Durrani said there were several good measures the government took in the budget.  He hailed the decision to abolish secret funds and demanded the same with funds for political agents of Fata.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 17^th, 2013.