Legislators from across the political divide voiced a strong protest in the National Assembly (NA) against rampant inflation, unprecedented load shedding and growing unemployment in the country.
Abid Sher Ali of PML-N said the ongoing power and gas crisis was more damaging than the plague of terrorism. “Efforts are underway to turn the country into barren land,” he alleged. He enquired as to why no attention was being paid to the issue.
He alleged that 80 billion rupees were spent on Benazir Income Support Program and if the same amount was spent on overcoming the power and gas crisis, the country would have been on road to prosperity.
The parliament wanted to know, he said, why the Iran-Pakistan gas project was scrapped.
Replying to a point of order from Sohail Mansoor of MQM, chief whip Khurshid Shah said government policies were aimed at providing employment opportunities to the people rather than rendering them jobless. “Government employees’ salaries were increased by 120 percent during our tenure,” he added. “We can not remain completely cut off from the world. If the commodities’ prices are reduced at once, it will lead the economy to complete collapse,” he stated.
The NA Deputy Speaker Faisal Karim Kundi said the foreign debt matter is of vital significance. He said both the government and opposition should consider the issue seriously and present a report in this regard in the house.
Dr Tariq Fazal Chaudhry of PML-N said 4,000 canals of state land from his constituency was being occupied forcibly and this matter ought to be given due consideration. Thousands of acres land is being occupied illegally and no one was there to stop the land mafia, he added.
Shah said Supreme Court takes suo motu notice on every matter and it should also take such notice against the prevailing land mafia.
Khurshid Godel of MQM said corruption was being practiced in bureaucratic circles and people holding dual nationalities were not only present in the parliament but were also present everywhere including the media.
Rising on his point of order, Jamshed Dasti of PPP said the principal secretary to prime minister was not giving importance to MNAs, who were being degraded by the PM. He maintained that this insult of parliamentarians will not be tolerated.
Federal Minister Sheikh Waqas Akram said he had pointed out three years earlier that armed militants of Uzbek Islamic Movement were accompanying the chief of a defunct outfit but no attention was paid to the matter. He questioned why sanctuaries of Uzbek terrorists had not been dismantled.
Shah told the House that it was a principle policy of the government that no government employee would be forced to leave his job. He said the government, by taking historic steps, had regularised the services of one hundred and four thousand daily wages and contractual employees.
Shah maintained the government through its prudent policies had improved the economy of the country. He said the foreign remittances as on Tuesday stood at 14 billion dollars, whereas the figure was 5.5 billion dollars in 2008.
The House observed a minute’s silence in memory of a Swedish social worker Bargeeta Almby who was killed in Lahore a few days ago. She had served as a social worker in Pakistan for about 39 years.
Two bills were introduced in the National Assembly on Tuesday including the “Acid Throwing and Burn Crimes Bill, 2012”.
“The Acid Throwing and Burn Crime Bill, 2012” provides to address acid throwing and burn crimes, which are increasing year by year and hundreds of women and children fall victim to this horrendous crime. It was moved by Dr Attiya Inayatullah and others.
The second bill moved by Yasmeen Rehman was “The Census (Amendment) Bill, 2012” to amend the Census Ordinance, 1959.
The chair referred the bills to the concerned Standing Committees.
The session was adjourned till Wednesday, 11 am.
