ISLAMABAD – Angry lawmakers from both treasury and opposition benches staged three separate token walkouts from the National Assembly on Tuesday to register their protest against the recent increase in petroleum, oil and lubricants (POL) prices.
The two major opposition parties – the PML-N and PML-Q – staged separate token walkouts from the House following the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), which belongs to the treasury benches. Speaking on a point of order, Haider Abbas Rizvi of the MQM demanded the government take the recent increase in petrol prices back within three days.
“The government should review the decision and reverse it within three days otherwise the MQM will devise its strategy,” he said. Rizvi said the government had increased POL prices without getting the OGRA’s decision vetted by the parliamentary committee which had been formed by the prime minister in this regard.
“Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani had told parliament that the petrol prices will not be increased without the parliamentary committee’s approval but the committee has been completely neglected,” he said. The MQM MNA said the increase in fuel prices was an indirect tax which directly affected the poor.
“The MQM has been demanding that instead of imposing indirect taxes, direct taxes should be imposed on landlords, industrialists and other rich people to meet the financial crunch,” he said, adding that the government should take measures to check hemorrhages in public sector enterprises. The parliamentarians from the MQM staged a token walkout from the House on the increase in the POL prices.
The PML-Q’s Sheikh Waqas Akram condemned the increase in the POL prices saying the poor were not ready to listen to the complicated technicalities attached with the POL pricing mechanism, adding that they just wanted relief. “Bring rich people in the tax net to meet economic challenges,” he said, demanding the government reverse its decision.
The PML-Q MNAs also staged a token walkout against the increase in petrol prices. The PML-N’s Saad Rafique said the decision of increasing the POL prices was cruel, unjust and brutal. “The government turned a deaf ear to the PML-N’s recommendations meant to generate resources and neither introduced reforms in the FBR nor checked hemorrhage in the state-owned enterprises,” he said.
He said the government was giving preference to the call of the IMF over the cry of its people. On Rafique’s call, the PML-N lawmakers staged a walkout from the House. In his point of order, Sheikh Aftab, the PML-N’s chief whip in the National Assembly, said the poverty-stricken people were unable to bear the burden of the increase in the POL prices.
“The government should check tax evasion, reform public sector enterprises to stop hemorrhage and take steps to curb electricity theft instead of increasing POL prices,” he said. Zafar Beg Bhittani from FATA also asked the government to review its decision. “If the government does not reverse the decision, it will invite troubles,” he said.
Awami National Party MNA Bushra Gohar said decisions regarding an increase in the POL prices should only be made by the parliamentary committee as agreed between all the parties. “Parliament should also take notice of the cut in the development budget and increase in defence spending,” she said. She condemned the Interior Ministry’s decision that no artist, journalist or student could go abroad without an NOC and demanded the government withdraw the decision.
Nadeem Afzal Chan of the PPP emphasised the need for imposing a wealth tax. “Impose tax on landlords,” he said. Defending her party, PPP’s Farah Naz Isphahani said political leaders were giving unfair message to the people by saying that the government was increasing POL prices.
