LAHORE: The flood tax will be levied for a six-month initiatory period and the government has redressed all reservations of the provinces over the Reformed General Sales Tax (RGST) before presenting the bill in parliament, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani said on Saturday.
He was talking to the media here Saturday in a private hospital after visiting Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) veteran leader and Senator Gulzar Ahmed Khan. Gilani said that there was no foreign pressure on the government to impose taxes while the decision of RGST was made after taking all the four provinces into confidence.
He said that the flood tax was a one time tax and levied for a period of six-months to generate funds for rehabilitation of flood affected areas whereas the federal and the provincial governments would share the burden of relief equally.
The PM made it clear that all political parties were part of the decision regarding the RGST as the final bill could not be passed without the consent of the four provinces. He said that Islamabad was working towards taking all political forces in confidence over all issues of national interest. Gilani said that in the past, governments had been toppled over on corruption charges.
However, he assured everyone that the PPP-led government was not anti-nation. To a question about the unification of the different factions of the Muslim League, Gilani said that if all Muslim Leagues unified then it would sent a good message to the people of the country. He, however, made it clear that the government and the PPP did not feel threatened by the merger at all.
The prime minister went on to state that there were no differences between the political parties of the country, the proof of which was the fact that all mainstream parties were part of the government.
Traffic jams show PM is in Lahore
LAHORE: Commuters suffered traffic jams as Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani paid a visit to Senator Gulzar admitted at Doctor’s Hospital on Saturday. PM’s visit to the hospital located at a canal junction near Johar Town chocked Canal Road which resulted in a traffic hold up on all main roads of the city.
People remained trapped in lengthy traffic queues on all the main arteries of Lahore including Defence Road, Canal Bank Road, Ferozepur Road, Jail Road, Mall Road and their connecting roads, when PM made his way from Defense to Doctor’s Hospital. “Its been 45 minutes and we are still stuck,” said Asim, a commuter stuck in the traffic jam with his family on Jail Road.
Patients admitted in the hospital and the visitors faced trouble as the PM’s presence in the hospital ‘enforced a curfew’ in the building, following the protocol procedures. Ahsan, a patient visiting the hospital said he had an appointment with a doctor which he could not follow up. “I wish he [prime minister] cared about the people a little more,” he said. Staff Report
