Assembly session: GBLA debates over non-customs paid vehicles

Resolution passed to regularise contract employees in G-B.

GILGIT: The Gilgit-Baltistan (G-B) legislative assembly speaker on Wednesday asked treasury benches to update the house on whether non-customs paid (NCP) vehicles have been regularised after the payment of customs duty.

Wazir Baig’s remarks came after lawmakers complained that the fate of NCP vehicles hangs in the balance despite paying customs duties.

“A court in Islamabad has declared the federal government’s amnesty scheme, under which duties have been paid, to be illegal,” Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) legislator Shireen Fatima said during the assembly’s second day of proceedings. Mirza Hussain and Amina Ansari of Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid said NCP vehicles couldn’t be driven out of G-B despite paying a huge duty, since their legal status is still ambiguous.

Baig directed Excise and Taxation Minister Muhammad Naseer to arrange a briefing for the legislators on the issue, with complete details of total revenue collected from G-B and where the amount is deposited.

Resolution passed

The house passed a resolution for the regularisation of contract employees in G-B. Wazir Baig added his reservations, saying they should be regularised after following a due procedure and without biases. Opposition leader Janbaz Khan also tabled his reservations.

Earlier, lawmakers including Fida Nashad, Farman Ali and Nawaz Khan Naji among others, raised concerns over their induction. They claimed that many of them had been appointed on political affiliations and considerations and there should be scrutiny before regularisation.

Another resolution tabled by the same MPA failed to sail through and was deferred. It was for regularisation of services in the municipal committees.

Vacancies on sale

Speaker Wazir Baig said vacancies in G-B’s Ministry of Finance are on sale. He made the comment after Finance Minister Muhammad Ali Akhtar complained that some of his ministry’s employees have been sacked on directives from the Chief Secretary office. “This is plain discrimination against my employees,” Akhtar said.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 24^th, 2013.