Treasury members disrupt Shehbaz’ speech in NA

ISLAMABAD: For the first time in the country’s parliamentary history, the National Assembly Monday witnessed disruption in the opposition leader’s speech to kick off debate on the federal budget 2021-22.

Members from the treasury benches led by Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi and Minister for Kashmir Affairs Ali Amin Gandapur started making noise as soon as Opposition Leader Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif began his speech.

Shehbaz said the budget announced by the government would bring pain to people. “If the pockets of the poor are empty, this means the budget exercise is fake," he said. He said the government should have supported the people living below the poverty line. He also rejected the government’s claims of economic progress.

“It is not the country but the Bani Gala palace. The blue-eyed boys of Imran Khan will benefit from the budget," he continued. Shehbaz continued his speech amid uproar by the government members before they moved towards him and he stopped his speech.

The speaker suspended the proceedings for 20 minutes asking leaders from sides to come to his chamber for talks so that the House could be run smoothly.

However, the House was adjourned after two and a half hours to Tuesday afternoon. PMLN leader Ahsan Iqbal later told The News that some ministers, who entered the speaker’s chamber, said they would not allow the opposition leader to speak until the prime minister allowed them. Talking to newsmen later, Ahsan Iqbal termed the speaker government’s puppet. “It is the blackest day in the parliamentary history and highly shameful to disrupt speech of the opposition leader,” he said.

He said Imran Khan was toeing the policies of Hitler and had introduced one-party system in the country.

‘This is Parliament House and not the Bani Gala palace,” he said. Earlier, the National Assembly Business Advisory Committee, met with the Speaker Asad Qaiser in the chair. It was decided that the present session would continue till June 30. It was also decided that general discussion on the budget would be opened by the leader of the opposition on Monday and wound up by federal minister finance on 24th of this month followed by taking up appropriations for charged expenditure. It was also decided that there would be 40-hour time duration for general discussion and both government and opposition benches would get time as per their strength in the House.

The committee unanimously decided not to take agenda of question and attention notice. Federal Ministers Ghulam Sarwar Khan, Dr Shireen, Mehrun Nisa and Parliamentary Advisor Dr Zaheerud Din Babar Awan, MNAs Rana Tanveer Hussain, Ch Muhammad Barjees Tahir, Murtaza Javed Abbasi, Syed Naveed Qamar , Syed Ghulam Mustafa, Shazia Marri, Shahida Akhtar Ali, Iqbal Muhammad Ali khan, Robina Irfan, Muhammad Aslam Bhotani and Mohsin Dawar attended the meeting. Meanwhile, opening the budget debate in the Senate, Leader of the Opposition Yusuf Raza Gilani called for political stability so as to achieving the goal of economic stability.

During the proceedings, the treasury and the opposition senators blamed held each other the country’s economic problems. Gilani recalled that there was no political prisoner in the country during his days in power, while criticising the government for what he called victimisation in the name of accountability.

He made reference to the putting behind bar of Shehbaz Sharif, Hamza, Khursheed Shah and the recent arrest of his son as well.

“There is a thin difference between accountability and political vengeance, which must be kept in view. I wonder why the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) laws were different from the ordinary laws: I spent 10 years in jail, but did not get remission of a single day unlike other prisoners,” he regretted.

Gilani cautioned that the circular debt had reached to a dangerously high level of Rs2,400 billion, and noted the finance minister had said that it would take seven to eight years to address the issue completely. He said this clearly meant they wanted to leave this huge burden for the coming government.

The PPP leader said the government wanted to increase power tariff in six phases to collect additional revenue of Rs934 billion by 2022, under the agreement reached with the IMF. He added that the IMF did not seem to be reviewing the conditions set in the agreement.

While criticising the government for 100 percent increase in the prices of some essential commodities at a time when the income and purchase power of the masses had gone down, owing to the COVID-19 pandemic. He emphasised that all the provinces should be given equal right in the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP), but noted it was being heard that some provinces were being ignored.

Leader of the House in the Senate Dr Shahzad Waseem, said the IMF had been told in categorical terms that there would be no increase in the power tariff. He added the government had the courage and ability to negotiate with IMF.

He congratulated Prime Minister Imran Khan and his economic team for presenting a pro-people, balanced and growth-oriented budget under such difficult circumstances with so many challenges, including that of the corona.

He came hard on PPP and PMLN for playing the musical chairs of power for years and doing nothing concrete for the country’s well-being.

Taking part in the budget debate, Senator Tahir Bizenjo of the National Party urged the Chief Justice of Pakistan to take notice of annual 4,000 deaths, caused by accidents on 1,813km long N-25 in Balochistan and urged the prime minister to convert it into a motorway, as his was the only province where not an inch of motorway existed to date.