Amidst opposition's shouts, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government on Tuesday presented a copy of the Finance Bill 2019 in the Senate as the opposition senators chanted anti-government slogans in a bid to disrupt the proceedings of the Upper House of the Parliament.
Soon after the Finance Bill 2019 received a bitterly hostile response from the opposition benches in the National Assembly, Minister of State for Revenue Hammad Azhar, in his designated capacity as Minister In-charge of Finance, Revenue and Economic Affairs, appeared before the Senate to present a copy of the Finance Bill, in line with the relevant constitutional provisions.
However, the treasury benches, who were expecting a smooth sailing in the Senate, unlike National Assembly, received strong resistance from the opposition parties. Normally, the presentation of Finance Bill in the Senate is considered a routine requirement and does not see a lot of aggressive parliamentary activity in the Upper House of the Parliament.
The Senate's session started almost an hour later than the scheduled time as the National Assembly's session was in progress where the opposition had created a furore against the Finance Bill.
The Senate's session, like National Assembly, began on a hostile note after Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Senator Mushahid Ullah Khan pointed out the lack of quorum in an apparent bid to have the house's proceedings adjourned due to lack of quorum. Chairman Senate Sadiq Sanjrani ordered members' count to determine the number of senators present during the session. To the relief of treasury benches, 28 senators were present in the 104-member Senate as compared to the required number of at least 26 senators or one-fourth of the total members of the Senate to meet the quorum. The relevant electoral and constitutional provisions provide for the adjournment of any respective session of the Senate and National Assembly if the attendance of the members is less than one-fourth of the total members in any given house.
As Chairman Senate Sadiq Sanjrani started the Senate's proceedings, the opposition senators led by Mushahid Ullah Khan sought the chair's permission to share their views on the budget but the chairman declined their request and directed Hammad Azhar to lay before the Senate a copy of Finance Bill 2019 containing the Annual Budget Statement under the Article 73 of the Constitution.
After a copy of the bill was presented, the chairman announced that the Senate may make recommendations, if any, to the National Assembly on the Finance Bill 2019 in the light of the relevant provisions of the Constitution. He adjourned the Senate session till Friday 10:30 am. The Senate will discuss the draft Finance Bill 2019 once it meets again on the given time. Constitutionally, the Upper House of the Parliament can hold extensive debate on the Finance Bill and devise recommendations accordingly but it has practically no role in budgetary legislation since it is completely up to the finance minister to either completely or partially accept those recommendations or hand them an outright rejection.
The Article 73 which deals with parliamentary business with respect to money bills reads, "(1) Notwithstanding anything contained in Article 70, a Money Bill shall originate in the National Assembly: Provided that simultaneously when a Money Bill, including the Finance Bill containing the Annual Budget Statement, is presented in the National Assembly, a copy thereof shall be transmitted to the Senate which may, within fourteen days, make recommendations thereon to the National Assembly.
"(1A) The National Assembly shall, consider the recommendations of the Senate and after the bill has been passed by the Assembly with or without incorporating the recommendations of the Senate, it shall be presented to the President for assent."
Despite that Hafeez Shaikh is the Advisor to Prime Minister on Finance, Revenue and Economic Affairs, the Finance Bill was presented by Hammad Mazhar since Hafeez Shaikh has not taken oath as a federal minister. If Hafeez Shaikh is not elected as a parliamentarian, he is constitutionally allowed to take oath as a federal minister only once for six months.
Article 91 (9) reads, "A Minister who for any period of six consecutive months is not a member of the National Assembly shall, at the expiration of that period, cease to be a Minister and shall not before the dissolution of that Assembly be again appointed a Minister unless he is elected a member of that Assembly: Provided that nothing contained in this clause shall apply to a Minister who is member of the Senate."
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