ISLAMABAD: The reformed general sales tax (GST) is not likely to get through the National Assembly Standing Committee on Finance in its present form with the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) only having five members of the 17-member committee.
The committee five members from the PML-N, three from the PML-Q and one each from the MQM, the ANP, the JUI-F and FATA. The PML-N, PML-Q and MQM have already announced that they would block the passage of this bill. The ANP and the JUI-F have yet not made their positions clear.
Insiders told Pakistan Today on Saturday that these parties might take a middle ground and seek some amendments to the controversial bill or abstain voting. According to rules, the standing committee could accept the proposed bill as it is, reject it completely or propose amendments in the draft.
Though the decision of the NA Standing Committee is not binding on the House, the committee’s possible rejection of a piece of legislation will put pressure on the government. PPP MNA Fauzia Wahab is the chairman of the standing committee, while party MPs Arif Aziz Sheikh, Aftab Shaban Mirani, Shahnaz Wazir Ali and Nafisa Shah are the members.
The minister for finance is the former officio member of the committee but cannot use his right to vote. M Qasim and Munir Orakzai represent the MMA and FATA respectively in the committee and being PPP’s coalition partners, might support it. The PML-N MPs Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, M Jamil Malik, Khawaja Asif, Nighat Parveen Mir, Khalida Mansoor along with the PML-Q’s Faisal Saleh Hayat, Riaz Fatiana, Kashmala Tariq and MQM’s Abdul Rashid Godil are going to block the bill’.
The ANP has only one member, Bushra Gohar,. If the ANP too opposes the bill, it would be rejected by 10/7. The MQM MNA and member NA finance body said, “The MQM has no reservations rather we are opposing it as a whole and I will oppose the reformed GST bill completely without recommending amendments in it.”
The proposed bill has also been forwarded to the 12-member Senate body on finance where Haroon Akhtar Khan (PML-Q), Ishaq Dar (PML-N), Ahmed Ali (MQM), Javed Ali Shah (PML-Q), Professor Khurshid (Jamaat-e-Islami), and most likely PPP’s senator Safdar Abbasi are set to oppose the piece of legislation in its present form and are likely suggest plenty of amendments in the bill.
