NA session adjourned without voting on finance bill

ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly session called on Friday to discuss the Finance (Supplementary) Bill, 2023, publicly known as the mini-budget, was adjourned without voting on the crucial tax amendments, necessary for reviving a stalled International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme and averting the threat of default. The session will now resume on Monday at 5 pm.

During the session, held with Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf in the chair, lawmakers criticised the government for increasing the burden on the poor by hiking taxes. PPP’s Qadir Khan Mandokhail urged the government to decrease the burden on the poor and instead hike taxes on luxury cars and houses. MQM-P’s Salahuddin criticised Dar for being ‘non-serious’ about the difficult conditions the country was facing. “If we are allied with you today, it is only to prevent the default and lift the country out of the economic crisis.

“The rupee has depreciated; petrol, electricity and gas were already expensive. These bombs had already been dropped on the public. And then our finance minister dropped another bomb on Feb 15.”

The NA session unanimously passed a bill for the establishment of Pir Roshaan Institute of Progressive Sciences and Technologies in the Miramshah area of North Waziristan district, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, after clause-by-clause reading.

Taking up supplementary agenda under the constitutional provision, Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf allowed Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PMLN) lawmaker Zeb Jaffar to move the bill on behalf of Minister for Federal Education and Professional Training Rana Tanveer Hussain.

According to the statement of object and reasons for the bill, the institute would provide a new identity to the district as well as to the Ghulam Khan border (Afghanistan) as a ‘knowledge corridor’, connecting South-East, South Asia and Central Asian states.