WEDNESDAY JUNE 22: National Assembly passes Rs 90.723 billion demands for grants: 153 cut motions rejected

ISLAMABAD: The-National Assembly on Tuesday approved 14 demands for grants worth Rs 90.723 billion pertaining to ministries of Interior (Rs 55.697 billion), Water and Power (34.497 billion), and Religious Affairs (Rs 528.943 million) by rejecting 153 cut motions. Opposition's Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) withdrew 23 cut motions relating to Religious Affairs Ministry.
Finance Minister Abdul Hafeez Sheikh moved as many as nine demands of Interior Ministry by opposing 87 cut motions of PML-N. The House approved Rs 24.080 billion for Civil Armed Forces, Rs 11.452 billion for Pakistan Rangers, Rs 5.63 billion for Frontier Constabulary, Rs 5.404 billion for Development Expenditure of Interior Division, Rs 4.776 billion for Islamabad, Rs 1.969 billion for other expenditure of Interior Division, Rs 1.071 billion for Pakistan Coast Guards, Rs 856.570 million for Passport Organisation and Rs 457.138 million for Interior Division.
He moved two demands for grants for Ministry of Water and Power and opposed 66 cut motions of the Opposition. The House approved one demand for grant worth Rs 34.136 billion for Development Expenditure of Water and Power Division and second of Rs 361.138 million for Water and Power Division. Dr Hafeez moved three demands for grants of Religious Affairs Ministry. The PML-N had presented 23 cut motions on this ministry, but later it withdrew these cut motions.
The National Assembly approved Rs 351.436 million for other expenditure of Religious Affairs Division, Rs 106.441 million for Religious Affairs Division and Rs 71.066 million for Council of Islamic Ideology (CII). Ahsan Iqbal and others speaking on cut motions of Ministry of Water and Power strongly opposed demands for grants and appropriation for the next fiscal year because the energy shortage has worsened during the last three years instead of any improvement. The failure of the government to overcome the power crisis and increasing load shedding is propelling the nation towards socio-economic revolution and riots could any time be ignited. The entire nation has become psychological patient, they said.
Ahsan said that circular debt, political influence and mismanagement are major problems in power sector and all of the issues could be resolved. He said that capacity of the IPPs, Wapda and hydel projects declined considerably during the recent years because of lack of modernisation. He said the government was not able to resolve the circular debt issue, and minimise line and efficiency losses.
On cut motions of Minister of Interior, Mehtab Ahmed Khan of PML(N) and others said that Pakistan has become a dangerous state for its own people because of security situation. Mehtab said that interior minister has been meddling in everything but the performance of his own ministry is simply dismal and disappointing. He said the Ministry of Interior is in complete shambles and was doing nothing to prevent growing incidents of suicide bombing. He said that kidnapping for ransom has become routine, and organised crimes in the country have a racket operating behind them.
He said that incidents of Karachi and Khrotabad have shaken the whole civil society and underlined the need to rebuilding of the institutions. Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Abdul Qadir Baloch and others also vehemently criticised the Interior ministry for its failure and strongly opposed demands for grants and appropriation for Ministry of Interior.