ISLAMABAD: Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) Pakistan Chief Sirajul Haq, Friday, criticising the federal budget 2023-24, regretted that the debt-servicing has plagued the national economy, witnessing an increase of a whopping 85 percent as compared to last year’s figures.
Reacting to the federal budget, he said that over 55 percent of the total budget outlay of 14.46 trillion for the financial year 2023-24 will be utilised on interest payments.
He said Finance Minister Ishaq Dar could not keep his word to abolish Riba.
He also criticised the government for ignoring the FATA-merged districts with KP and Balochistan for which, he added, a meagre amount was announced as against the need of the areas.
He said the government has no mechanism to collect Rs9,200 billion taxes as the target was contrary to the ground situation. The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), he added, had collected around Rs5,000 last year.
He said the nation feared the government would present a mini-budget in the near future to meet the demands of the IMF.
Earlier, the JI chief appeared before the Supreme Court on Friday morning in the Panama Case hearing. He filed the constitutional petition through his counsel Ishtiaq Raja for the investigation of 436 persons whose names were revealed in the Panama Papers in 2017.
Talking to the journalist outside the court, Haq said if the top court could not hold accountable all 436 people named in the international corruption scandal for the larger interest of public money, it would result in irreparable loss to the general public.
The JI chief had filed the petition under Article 184 (3) of the constitution, making the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs, Ministry of Law and Justice, Ministry of Finance, Cabinet Division, and National Accountability Bureau (NAB) as respondents.
Unlike the usual protocol of asking for the formation of commissions, the JI chief, through his counsel, had requested that the top court to direct the respondents to initiate an inquiry into the names revealed in the Panama Papers.
Furthermore, he had asked for trials following the investigations and resultant arrests so that at least some of the public money could be recovered and brought back to Pakistan.
In that petition, the JI chief submitted that Pakistan was fighting against financial crises but the government and other legal entities are busy making illegal money by establishing “offshore companies” that also go against the constitution.
The petition lamented the lack of action by investigation agencies over the money invested under the shroud of offshore companies. It said that many public officeholders are also involved and have failed to mention the details of their assets, adding that they are all liable to not only be disqualified but also punished accordingly.
The petition stated that the implicated persons should be tried under the laws of NAO 1999 and the FIA. The JI also highlighted how they have no other alternative other than to involve the Supreme Court because the matter is of public importance.
Haq told the journalists that the institutions mandated to conduct accountability had failed to fulfil their responsibility. The JI, he said, was demanding across-the-board accountability. He said the nation had pinned hopes on the top courts.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023
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