Former Chairman Senate Raza Rabbani of Pakistan People's Party on Friday said that past civilian governments never got the opportunity to formulate foreign and security policies, and now the economic policy of the country has also been snatched from civilians and handed over to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Speaking on a motion about recent increase in petroleum prices, he said that that the ongoing talk for a bailout package is in fact "between IMF and IMF and not between government of Pakistan and IMF." "The appointment of adviser to the prime minister on economy and governor State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), sitting IMF employees, shows who is running our economy...I've also heard that IMF is also giving dictation to government about the forthcoming financial budget for the 2019-20," he added.
"But this government not only changed its finance minister [Asad Umar] but also replaced him with an IMF man [Hafeez Shaikh] and then handpicked another sitting employee of IMF as SBP governor which is unprecedented," he said. "At present, there are two gaps in the economy of the country -the first one is that of the rupee, while other is of the dollar - the dollar gap is there because of excessive imports in comparison to the exports and the rupee gap is there due to government's excessive spending," he added.
About appointment of Shabbar Zaidi as new chairman of Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), he said that cabinet secretary has already informed the government that his nomination is being hit on two accounts - one, on a 2013 judgement of Islamabad High Court, and the other is on the question of conflict of interest - as Zaidi is a senior partner of AF Ferguson & Co and remained tax consultant of different business houses.
"To circumvent the IHC decision, the government took refuge under pro bono and said he [Zaidi] would work on honorary basis. A suit is pending before Sindh High Court which deals and pertains to liabilities of AF Ferguson & Co as a company and as an entity in payment of taxes. Is this now not going to be a conflict of interest?" he questioned.
Taking part in the debate, Senator Javed Abbasi of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) said that the government has thrown three "oil bombs" and the recent one was no less than a 'nuclear' one due to which price of everything has gone skyrocketing. He regretted that prices of gas were increased by 143 percent and some 3.4 million people were slapped with inflated gas bills, but despite commitment that over-billed consumers would be compensated accordingly, no one was given a single penny.
PPP Parliamentary Leader in Senate Senator Sherry Rehman questioned that the government is introducing tax amnesty schemes for the rich and inflationary packages for the poor. "Why have petrol prices gone up by 14 percent before May 1, the GST was 2 percent of the total petrol price, which was increased to a whopping 12 percent before Ramazan. This is the only Ramazan package the government has given. A horrifying third budget is on its way," she added.
She said that petrol is the backbone of any economy and rise in its price impacts every sector and every commodity, adding in Pakistan, the biggest user of petrol is the transport sector that consumes 48% while the price of a 50kg bag of urea has been increased by Rs 150. "All will be hit hard by this petrol price bomb. Transportation has become so expensive in Pakistan that food and public transport has come to a halt. In KP itself, the transport sector is warning of a wheel jam strike due to the increase in petrol prices," Rehman added.
Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) said that half of the cabinet comprises 'turncoats'. The government has left people jobless in every sphere of life, he said, adding, the claim of building houses was proved after houses were razed out in the name of anti-encroachment drive. He called upon the opposition parties to play their due role in ousting the government as this is the voice of the people.
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