FROM A RINGSIDE SEAT

General discussion on the federal budget began in the National Assembly on Thursday and the Senate resumed the debate for the same that started a day before. The level of discussion was quite high in both the Houses but the hour-long speech that Chaudhry Nisar Ali delivered will stand out for its logic and reasoning.
In the Senate S.M. Zafar's speech, built around the distilled wisdom that the senior member has acquired over the years, was quite impressive. But it was the leader of the opposition, Maulana Fazlur Rehman who opened the discussion in the National Assembly.
Nisar began by reminding the government that some opposition leaders are languishing in jails and some on forced exile but he would only talk about the budget and the times when it is being presented.
He took exception to Omer Ayub's martial tone that laced his budget speech, "as if he was speaking at Mochi Gate, or a truck horn has been fixed on a rickshaw". "Haq-e-Tanqeed Tujhe Hai Mugar Aik Shart kay Sath/ Jaiza Laite Raho Apne Grebano Ka". Then without saying in so many words he told the scion of Ayub family that the public accounts committee has only recently seized case of bank default amounting to some Rs 32 crores.
Omar Ayub was present but not sitting in his seat; he was sitting next to his mother. Nisar rejected Omar Ayub's assertion that the begging bowl has been broken "because it is the 'dagh' that the government now carries". If the government has really smashed the begging bowl then why dance around at the report that the World Bank agreed to give Pakistan 6.5 billion dollars loan, he asked.
Nisar Ali came hard on the government's pro-US policy to contest the minister's claim that the present government has restored respect and dignity of the country. "You did everything for the US; you lost 500 troops, 6500 civilians, put in chains seven nuclear scientists, bowed before the neighbouring country and ditched Kashmiris and your senior ministers had to be body searched and you say you restored the dignity of Pakistan".
"You talk of economic take-off while the people drink from the gutters... and suicides have become common", Nisar taunted, adding "only this week three real sisters committed collective suicide because of poverty". Is it the take-off that city of lights, Karachi, goes dark just at the sunset, he said. It is about the people like you in the government that one of the minister's ancestors, Sardar Bahadar Khan, had famously said "Har Shakh Pe Uloo Baitha Hai/ Anjam-e-Gulistan Kya Hoga".
The so-called economic boom is the courtesy of 9/11 that triggered massive remittances and buying dollars by the central bank from the market and earthquake pledges, Chaudhry Nisar Ali said.
As for the "62 billion dollars oil subsidy" it is all rubbish, he said and informed the House that not a single megawatt of electricity was added to the national grid during the outgoing year, and nor would be any addition in this sector in next two to three years.
He blamed "those few generals" for the mess that Pakistan is presently in, to the objection of the Chair. At this point Khwaja Asif stood up to ask the Chair to read the text of the oath that Amy officers take on entering the service. He said the situation of Balochistan must be discussed, because it is Punjab that is being blamed, and those in Fata are not against Pakistan. "All is well over there" - he said is not true, as was General Yahya's persistent claim of everything was under control in East Pakistan.
Chaudhry Nisar Ali said the expenditures of the Prime Minister House and the Presidency have been twice of their allocations, and about tours undertaken by the occupants of these houses the government is not prepared to give information.
He pleaded for review of Pakistan-US relationship and country's nuclear programme. Makhdoom Amin Fahim too talked of threatening tone of the speech of Omar Ayub, wondering it was a reaction to signing of the Charter of Democracy by two ex-PMs. He said the budget is the product to protect the "interests of some lobbies".
In the Senate, S.M. Zafar pleaded for setting up an autonomous election commission, which should ensure free and fair elections in 2007, with the help of a code of conduct prepared jointly by political parties. An independent election commission would obviate the need for an interim government, he added. He also stressed the need for grand reconciliation and dialogue between the military and political leadership. The discussion on the budget would continue on Friday in both the Houses.