The opposition on Friday thwarted a government move to gratify lawmakers by awarding them the travelling and daily allowances (TA/DA) for around nine days without tendiong to any business, as the National Assembly session was being adjourned on April 30 for a reassembly on May 9. Leader of the Opposition Nisar Ali Khan exposed the plan, saying his party would neither support the idea and would not seek any TA/DA for nine days when the National Assembly was being adjourned. However, PML-Q legislators rubbished the argument raised by Nisar, saying no TA/DA was permissible under the law if the House was adjourned for two or more days.
Speaking on a point of order, Nisar said the business advisory meeting had decided to adjourn the session for ten days so as the ministers for water and power and natural resources could brief the House on gas and power load shedding. However, his party would oppose the plan as the government wanted to pay the TA/DA to lawmakers for doing nothing during these nine days. “As per law, every MNA gets around Rs 3,750 as TA/DA everyday and the total amount to be paid to the lawmakers would touch millions of rupees, which is a joke with the countrymen. People are dying of hunger and price hike and the government is going to pay us millions for doing nothing.
We should take care of the general public and my party would not be a part of this all,” he said, adding that the opposition had asked the government to resolve the public issues through consensus, but the treasury benches were trying to fleece the public further. He said that on one hand the government was ready to brief the National Assembly on power issue and on the other hand power tariff had been increased by Re 1 per unit without taking the House into confidence. Acting Speaker Faisal Karim Kundi reminded Nisar that the decision to adjourn the session had been made in the business advisory meeting, which was also attended by PML-N leaders and they should have raised their reservations during the meeting.
He said if the House overturned the business advisory meeting’s decisions, there was no point of having those meetings in the first place. Amir Muqam of the PML-Q said according to the law, whenever the session was adjourned for more than two days, no TA/DA was paid to members and same was the case in this situation. Faisal Saleh Hayat of the PML-Q also supported Muqam’s views, adding that if there was a disagreement, the session could be continued from Monday. However, PPP-Sherpao chief Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao said the PML-N members should have raised the matter in the business advisory committee.
PPP Chief Whip Syed Khurshid Shah, however, said his party would not insist on the House business advisory meeting’s decision. He said if the opposition wanted that no TA/DA paid to its members, the government would respect their views and no TA/DA would be paid to any member. State Minister for Foreign Affairs Hina Rabbani Khar said the government was making all out efforts to control inflation. Responding to a calling attention notice tabled by PML-N members Begum Nisar Tanveer, Malik Shakir Bashir Awan and others regarding increase in the prices of general commodities, the minister said the inflation could be controlled by tightening monetary and fiscal policies.
“As far as the monetary side is concerned, the government has raised interest rate to control inflation despite complaints by the private sector. Moreover, borrowing from the State Bank of Pakistan has also been reduced. While on the fiscal side, massive cuts have been made in various sectors, except the law enforcement and energy sectors, in order to control inflation,” she said. The National Assembly also passed the General Statistics (Reorganisation) Bill 2011 unanimously as reported by the standing committee.
