FROM A RINGSIDE SEAT

For the last three days the government has tried to create an impression that the current year's budget would bring relief to the harried populace.
It is now time for the Members of National Assembly and Senate, both on the Treasury as well as those sitting on the Opposition, to match their wits in glorifying or pulling the budget document apart. Thus, the mammoth general debate session has begun in both the Houses, in cool and placid environment, for once.
However, in the morning we witnessed in the Senate, the masterly dissection of the budget, with eloquent contribution made by the Leader of the House, Wasim Sajjad, Professor Khurshid Ahmad, and the former finance minister. Ishaq Dar. He deputises for the Prime Minister in bringing legislative matters and advising in the House Business Advisory Committee.
In his new position, Wasim Sajjad also has the onerous duty to act proactively as strong defender of the government. Therefore, in his presentation he upbraided the Nawaz Sharif era, but glorified the present government's achievement, proclaiming at the same time that Pakistan today was a much more progressive and strong country than it was in 1999.
Referring to the Nawaz Sharif years, (during which he was powerful Senate Chairman) he said the foreign exchange reserves had dwindled to about $300 and the country was on the verge of defaulting on its financial commitments. He imagined the situation in which PIA aircraft would be seized in foreign lands because the country was on the verge of bankruptcy.
Wasim Sajjad praised his leader Chaudhry Shujaat Husain. The latter would trounce the Opposition parties in the coming elections. His leader was a silent worker and saves his energies for hard times while the Opposition had squandered its goodwill during the Chief Justice's political campaign, as he put it.
However, Professor Khurshid Ahmad and Dar did a good job of matching the Senate House Leader's eloquence. It looked more as a test of wits, with each speaker bringing his own economic statistic to the fore to counter other's argument.
However, Dar was much stronger on the economic side. 'We had seen during the last seven years the ruling party championing the interest of the feudal and the elite class and no serious attempt made to address the agonies of the poor class.'
However, on two occasions in the National Assembly we reached a clash counterpoint between two opposing views. At one time Sher Afgan reacted when the Opposition Leader, Maulana Fazlur Rahman obtusely branded the Minister a lota (turncoat).
A second time, PML-N leader Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan reminded the Speaker of the past tradition that on a day when the Leader of the Opposition initiates general discussion on the budget, it was reserved for speeches to be made by leaders of various opposition parties.
The Speaker promised to verify the matter. Did it mean that the blame game had ended for the time being? Hardly. There was a slight disquiet on learning that just before the Assembly was to meet at 2 pm MQM leader Farooq Sattar submitted a reference with Speaker Chaudhry Amir Husain that Imran Khan, the cricket hero, must be disqualified as Member National Assembly, from Mianwali for moral turpitude, in accordance with Articlc 63 of the Constitution.
MQM also insisted that due time should be fixed for participation of its Members. Kanwar Khalid Yunus brought up this point before the Speaker, just when the debate was beginning. During the debate, the opposition assailed the budget with full fury. Leader of the Opposition Maulana Fazlur Rahman was just back after attending a seminar in India where he encouraged both Pakistan and India to walk the peace road.
Maulana's peroration in the Assembly reflected his penchant for foreign policy and it was laced with snatches from Urdu couplet: Chaman ke rang o bu ne is qadar dhoke diye mujhko/ Ke shauq gul bosi man kaanto par zabaan rakh di. (Deceived with the deceptive colour of garden I tried to kiss a flower but it turned out be a thorn).
He went on to accuse the government of selling out the country for doing the dirty work for the Americans and netting in about a billion dollars without rendering any account.
Briefly, in this regard he also mentioned the nuclear hero Abdul Qadeer Khan, who was now languishing in detention. The Maulana referred to statistics about the failure of the government in reaching targets promised in the last year's budget and said the failure would bring defeat to the government party in the next year's election.
When Sher Afgan the Parliamentary Affairs Minister retorted that the Maulana would loose even his seat in the election and the NWFP government had been a failure all along, the Maulana fished out a report saying that the indigenous people were satisfied with the NWFP government in education and health sectors.
The Maulana quoted another report affirming that corruption was the lowest in the NWFP and the worst in the Punjab. 'That is why you would be defeated every where and we would leave you behind in the Punjab, as well.'
In his speech, Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan kept on rubbing the Treasury Members. They would feel better if they articulated the national scene correctly, and said that the country was worse off now than in October 1999.
Quoting statistics Chaudhry Nisar argued that last year unemployment figures had raised to 36.6 million, the GDP of Pakistan was 4.6 as compared to India's 7.3 percent and according to the World Bank figures domestic savings in Pakistan was 16.1 in comparison to India's 26.6 percent. Mian Malik Aslam, the state minister, accused Chaudhry Nisar Ali of not having read the budget document at all.
In his speech, Chaudhry Nisar referred to the unpleasant event of June 6 in the Press Gallery and said he was pained to learn that a senior journalist Hamid Mir was stopped from coming to the parliament not on 'your orders, Mr Speaker, but from some one outside.'
Incidentally, the issue of Press Gallery to Media Personnel also surfaced in the Senate. There, Chairman Mohammadmian Soomro received kudos from the House for his smooth handling of the issue.
Soomro, State Information Minister Tariq Azeem and Khwaja Asif showed up at the lunch to share meal with the working journalists covering the general debate sessions. Both Houses will meet for long hours, from 10am till 9pm, and this would continue until the passage of the budget on June 25.