The government rushed Finance Bill 2005 through the National Assembly on Friday containing annual budget statement amid an uproar, as combined opposition protesting against political victimisation stormed out of the House. Taking advantage of the absence of combined opposition, which boycotted the entire evening proceedings against the suspension of at least seven Punjab Assembly members from Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) and Pakistan People's Party Parliamentarians by the provincial speaker, the treasury got the bill passed with ease.
As the 342-member Lower House adopted the Rs 1.098 trillion budget for the fiscal year 2005-06, the opposition parties held a news conference and blasted the government policies.
Besides the Finance Bill, the House also passed the supplementary demands for grants and appropriations for 2004-05.
The government has incorporated 17 out of 20 recommendations submitted by the Upper House of the Parliament. Meanwhile, the recommendations proposed by the opposition lawmakers were dropped due to their absence in connection with the boycott.
Federal Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Dr Sher Afgan Niazi tried hard to bring opposition members back, but they stuck to their stance and did not return.
Some of treasury members also asked the Chair to make all possible efforts to bring the opposition back, so that they could also contribute in the most important piece of the legislation.
Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, along with Pakistan Muslim League President Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, also held a brief meeting with Chaudhry Amir Hussain in the Speaker's chamber to amicably find a way out in this regard.
Nevertheless, the opposition refused to come back and vowed to continue their struggle for true democracy in the country where all political parties would enjoy their due political rights.
However, the situation provided a free hand to the government, which rushed through the finance bill from the National Assembly in a short span of time.
But despite the absence of opposition lawmakers, the government faced great embarrassment when a treasury member M.P Bhandara bluntly criticised the government for storming through the most important bill from the Lower House.
Commenting on the legislation process in the absence of opposition, Bhandara was of the view that there is still need of great improvement to get rid of such parliamentary practices.
He said government bears more than Rs 7 million expenses for just one hour of assembly proceedings.
Expressing dissatisfaction over the parliament's performance, Bhandara maintained such hefty amount should be allocated to health or education sector instead of wasting it.
Earlier in the day, the opposition members, taking part in the discussion on the Finance Bill 2005, mainly targeted the Central Board of Revenue (CBR) apart from accusing the government of not suggesting any concrete measures to address poverty and inflation.
Former finance minister Naveed Qamar was the first speaker from opposition, who opened the debate by saying the government had included certain clauses in the bill which empowers the CBR to increase taxes through 'non-transparent' way.
The PPPP lawmaker said the government has miserably failed to take up two main challenges of poverty and rising inflation.
The Budget 2005-06 would only benefit the industrialists and no major tax concession has been given to the poor masses, he pointed out, adding even no provision has been made to facilitate the agriculture sector, which is the backbone of country's economy.
Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) leader Liaquat Baloch also came down heavily on the government for giving 'undue powers' to the CBR.
He said the increased role of CBR had made the life of common man more difficult. The MMA leader criticised the recent announcement of Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz regarding provision of wheat flour to masses on subsidised rates through Utility Stores. There are not more than 400 branches of Utility Stores throughout the country, therefore the move would not bring about any significant effect, Baloch contended.
Lashing out at the regulation of petroleum prices twice in a month, he said the National Assembly should have been empowered to decide the oil tariffs.
Another opposition MNA, Tehmina Daultana referred to the growing problem of unemployment, saying currently over 3 million masters degree-holders were looking for jobs.
The lady MNA from PML-N charged that the current budget only benefited the army instead of common man. She demanded immediate exit of the army from the country's political affairs.
Aitzaz Ahsan, the vocal lawmaker from the PPPP, taking part in the debate said the imposition of withholding tax on the withdrawal of Rs 2,5000 or above from banks would force the masses to bypass the law.
He said in the United States, the Congress had all the powers to decide tax issues but here in Pakistan the story was different altogether.
Another setback for Shaukat Aziz administration was that its treasury member Makhdoom Ahmed Anwar Alam announced to bring no-confidence motion against Speaker Amir Hussain.
Angry Makhdoom was ignored by the Speaker when he wanted to say something on a point of order.
Comments
Comments are closed.