NA okays 77 demands for grants of Rs 2 trillion

The National Assembly on Friday approved 77 demands for grants of over Rs 2 trillion as opposition members demanded the government put all the charged expenditures before the House for voting to ensure transparency and check corruption.
They also said the expenditure of the Presidency, the Prime Minister’s House and Railways were unjustified and the government should launch an austerity drive and manage its expenditure.
Taking part in the debate, PML-N MNA Zahid Hamid said the figures showed that debt servicing and repayment on foreign loans had increased by 340 percent while domestic loaning had increased by 200 percent during the past four years. He suggested that Fiscal Responsibility and Debt Limitation Act should be amended to control the volume of borrowings. He said the government should also reduced its expenditures and set example for others.
JUI-F lawmaker Asia Nasir said it was very unfortunate that despite a democratic government, the lawmakers could only debate the charged expenditure but could not vote on it. She said all the expenditures should be brought before parliament and allocation should be made to all departments after voting. She said it was mandatory to put such expenditures for voting as it would help ensure good governance and transparency. “We have great respect for the Supreme Court but it should also place its expenditures before the audit. Railways and other such institutions running in deficit should be privatised immediately,” she said.
Abdul Qadir Baloch said besides discussion, the House should be allowed to vote on the charged expenditures to bring transparency and ensure good governance. He said the government should fix the limit of taking loans as eighty percent of the charged expenditures were mentioned under the head of repayment of foreign and domestic loans.
He said the government should adopt austerity measures and bring reforms in the taxation system to put the country on the path of self-reliance.
Saud Majid voiced concerns over the performance of various state-owned enterprises, and suggested restructuring of the Pakistan Railways to make it a profitable entity. He was of the view that expenditures being incurred on the Presidency, the Senate and the National Assembly be checked.
Sardar Mehtab Ahmad Khan, Shireen Arshad, Malik Abrar, and Tahira Aurangzeb also spoke on the occasion.
Minister for Water and Power Naveed Qamar, however, rejected the concerns of the parliamentarians over the increase in the expenditure of the Presidency and said up to six percent increase had occurred only to adjustment in salaries of the employees working at the presidency.
Qamar said though debt-servicing was, and had been, an issue of concern, debt to GDP ratio had come down from 60 to 55 percent. “It’s quite an achievement in this time, and it’ll continue to come down”, he added. He said efforts were afoot to improve performance of Pakistan Railways and Pakistan Post.
Later, the National Assembly approved the 77 demands for grants of over Rs 2 trillion with a majority as Rs 247,021,350,000 were approved for fiscal year 2011-2012.