The Senate proceedings were suspended for 30 minutes due to lack of quorum as joint opposition on Thursday stormed out of the House to agitate absence of ministers, linking start of budget debate with the availability of the minister concerned at least.
After the opposition staged a walkout, National Party Senator Dr Ashok Kumar stayed back to point out that the House was not in order. Chairman Senate Muhammad Sadiq Sanjrani ordered ringing of bells for five minutes after the count was made and the minimum required presence of 26 senators was not there.
The order of the day carried debate on the budget, besides two calling attention notices, laying of reports of three different bills and a motion to seek more time to thrash out a report on the Transplantation of Human Organs and Tissues (Amendment) Bill, 2018, which was introduced by Senator Mian Muhammad Ateeq of MQM-Pakistan.
Former Chairman Senate Mian Raza Rabbani suggested to the chair to adjourn the House till the time either minister of finance or minister for revenue was around to take notes of speeches by senators on the budget. "It will be a useless exercise in the absence of the minister concerned. The front rows meant for ministers are empty despite the fact there are federal as well as state ministers. The absence of ministers is disrespect to the House but they are not bothered to ensure their presence here," he regretted.
The matter was raised by PML-N Senator Muhammad Javed Abbasi, who alleged that the absence of ministers showed their level of seriousness towards the House business. He insisted that the ministers accorded no respect to the House.
Leader of the House Senator Shibli Faraz rose to say that it has been their utmost effort that the Senate business is transacted smoothly and no hurdle comes its way. "But at times ministers have to be present in the federal cabinet and today is the same day and ministers are busy in the cabinet meeting. Some are on the way. It was an understanding on Wednesday that the budget debate will start on Friday," he pointed out.
He said the Leader of Opposition Raja Zafarul Haq was also not present in the House who was supposed to initiate debate on the budget. He also assured the senators that besides him, senior officers of the Finance Ministry and FBR are present in the gallery to take notes. The ministers concerned, he assured, would be present to respond to questions regarding the budget.
Senator Shibli also pointed out that the cabinet agenda is extremely important, prompting Rabbani to read out some of the agenda items of the cabinet meeting to wonder if it was that much important and insisted the Parliament must be given preference.
The leader of the opposition rose to contend that the students' delegation present in the visitors gallery should also have an idea about the empty seats of the ministers while an important debate on the budget was to start, as the Chair announced the presence of students in the gallery.
To this, the Chair said he had already given a ruling and why the debate was to be started on Thursday. He asked Shibli Faraz to look for ministers. As the opposition senators began making exit, BNP-Mengal Jehanzeb Jamaldini, who sits on the treasury benches, said the opposition is justified in staging protest on the absence of ministers.
Earlier, opposition leader in Senate Raja Zafarul Haq and Raza Rabbani stopped State Minister for Revenue Hammad Azhar from responding to some of the issues raised by the opposition senators, saying the minister can only conclude the debate on the supplementary budget bill.
This infuriated Shibli Faraz, who insisted there is no such rule which bars a minister from speaking during a debate on the money bill. Terming some of the points raised by opposition lawmakers as propaganda against the mini-budget, he said that the minister should respond to them on the spot or else it will tarnish the image of the government.
Taking part in debate on the second supplementary finance bill introduced by the government, Senator Usman Khan Kakar of PKMAP said that finance minister had served with multinational companies and he is promoting their agenda. He said that a man who spent his whole life serving multinational companies had no idea of the country's economy, due to which it is presenting mini-budget after every three months which should stop as it would just crush the poor man.
The treasury lawmakers were all praise for the mini-budget, saying the fragile economy which they had inherited, had finally taken off due to prudent polices of the government. Senator Faisal Javed said that the measures which the PTI had taken to boost the economy will bear fruit in years to come.