Unity among ranks: Opposition walks out over GST hike

PTI, PPP call into question budget proposals after SC ruling.

ISLAMABAD:

In a rare show of unity, the opposition parties on Monday staged a combined walkout from the National Assembly over controversial implementation of increased general sales tax prior to finance bill’s approval by the parliament.

Lawmakers from Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) joined their colleagues from Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) in their walkout from the house. Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) followed them.

Later the MQM members staged another token walkout on “the targeted killing of its workers” before boycotting the session over the death of one of their MPAs Sajid Qureshi and his son in a gun attack in Karachi.

Calling into question the legal position of the entire proposed budget after the Supreme Court declared the 1% GST hike ‘unconstitutional’, the PTI demanded the government to adjourn house proceedings and explain its position in the wake of the court ruling

“After the court’s decision all benchmark figures in the budget would change; so the government should explain in plain words how do they plan to deal with that,” said PTI deputy parliamentary leader Shah Mehmood Qureshi as he demanded that the assembly proceedings should be halted till then.



Leader of Opposition Khursheed Shah endorsed Qureshi’s point of view. He questioned as to how the government, in the wake of Supreme Court’s decision, plans to recover the money that has already been collected from people in the form of increased GST.

“When the parliament suggested the same to the government they did not pay heed and now the court has declared it illegal,” said Shah. He went on to suggest that the decision, in the end, should be taken by the parliament and not be left for any other institution.

Pashtoonkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP) chief Mehmood Khan Achakzai, however, insisted that “We must learn from past experiences. All disagreements should be sorted out within this hall,” said Achakzai.Finance Minister Ishaq Dar showed up to wind up budget debate and clarified government’s position on budget in the wake of the court’s decision.

“We will definitely act upon the court’s decision but it had nothing to do with the entire budget and any way forward on it would be decided with the consent of the parliament,” said Dar, adding that he had not received the copy of Supreme Court’s detailed decision.

But the finance minister could not conclude the budget debate as the opposition, this time led by the PPP, came up with another complaint. Naveed Qamar demanded that the house be provided copies of Senate’s recommendations before Dar’s winding up speech.

Dar himself offered to defer his speech as the house was informed that the senate’s recommendations were lying with the senate secretariat.

The finance minister would wind up the budget debate on Saturday.

National Assembly’s former speaker Dr Fehmida Mirza, now sitting on opposition benches, asked the government to evaluate and withdraw controversial proposals of granting unnecessary powers to Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) as they would burden the common man.

“Authorising the FBR to access people’s bank accounts, for instance, would cause capital flight,” said Dr Mirza adding that such measures would not bring more people into tax net.

MQM boycotts

Muttahidda Qaumi Movement’s (MQM) Rashid Godil interrupted the budget discussion to inform the house that his party’s MPA Sajid Qureshi and his son were shot dead in Karachi as they were returning home after Friday prayers.

“We have been raising our voice again and again that our workers and leaders are being continuously targeted and killed but no one listened,” said Godil.

He demanded that the interior minister visit Karachi and take action against the killings of MQM workers.

The speaker tried in vain to stop the MQM members from leaving the house.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 22^nd, 2013.