— Govt fails to woo back protesting Opp again
— Opp holds “Awami Assembly” outside Parliament House
The joint opposition held its Awami Assembly outside the Parliament House to debate the Finance Bill 2017-17, compelling the coalition government to ask them to return to the house without a success.
The occasion, however, provided the opposition MPs to experience the harsh weather conditions in which the media representatives cover the NA session. The opposition’s assembly was held at a place which is otherwise allocated for media talk and most of the journalists and cameraman spend their day in harsh weather conditions.
While the treasury and opposition-held parallel sessions of the National Assembly simultaneously inside and outside the assembly premises, it made coverage of both the events difficult for the media.
The only obvious thing, however, was that the MPs from the ruling coalition showered praises on Finance Minister Ishaq Dar for presenting a pro-people budget, while the opposition session outside the parliament house termed the bill as anti-people and anti-poor.
It was Pashtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP) chief Mahmood Achakzai who felt the gravity of the situation and urged the ruling party to woo back the disgruntled opposition leader with an olive branch.
“Let me propose formal legislation to ensure live telecast of the speech of the opposition leader in future,” said Achakzai, speaking on a point of order.
He said Achakzai it was a joke with the parliament as opposition parties were holding a parallel assembly outside the parliament house. He urged the government to legislate to frame a law ensuring live coverage of opposition leader’s budget speech like finance minister,” said Achakzai, requesting the Sardar Ayaz Sadiq to send a delegation of government members to win back the opposition.
JUI-F lawmaker Asiya Nasir supported the idea, saying that there was no harm in telecasting the speech of opposition leader live during the budget debate.
The government, however, looked determined not to accept the proposal.
“We accept the proposal for legislation on this matter but not in absence of the opposition. I think we should ask opposition to participate in this legislation, as they might have some objections over it,” Minister for Defence Production Rana Tanvir Hussain said.
Finally, the speaker sent a delegation of the ruling coalition to talk to the opposition leader Khurshid Shah on the proposal. However, the talks could not make a breakthrough who told the delegation that he could not make a unilateral decision. He told the delegation that he would get back once he would have the input of the parliamentary leaders of opposition parties. Hence, the opposition continued with their parallel assembly.
The opposition lawmakers, who named their assembly as ‘People Assembly’ or Awami Assembly, started the debate with opposition leader Syed Khurshid Shah opening the debate in very hot weather conditions.
Shah during his long speech grilled the incumbent government over budget proposals.
PTI’s Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Jamat-e-Islami’s Sahibzada Tariqullah, Dr Farooq Sattar of the Mutahidda Qaumi Movement (MQM) and others spoke on the Finance Bill.
Opposition leader Khursheed Shah, initiating the debate, said the finance minister misled the whole nation through budgetary proposals. “There is no relief for poor in this budget,” he said, mentioning that the federal government failed to meet the GDP growth target.
Shah hailed the fact that his own party’s government gave 125 per cent raise in salaries of the public servants while the PML-N government had given 47.5 per cent increase in salaries in their five budgets. He also alleged that the finance minister had fudged figures to mislead the IFI’s and the people at large.
PTI’s Shah Mahmood Qureshi grilled the government for its failure to meet the power outages.
“The government has not given priority to health and education in the budget,” he said.
PTI’s Asad Umar, in his speech, blamed the ruling coalition for figure-fudging in the Finance Bill. He said the production of electricity comparatively decreased as compared to the previous regime. He said the tax on salaried class is being taken at the level of what is in the US and in return there is no proper relief and basic amenities for the taxpayers.
JI’s Sahibzada Tariqullah said that there was no proper relief in budgetary proposals.
MQM’s leader Farooq Sattar came down hard on government for not controlling the K-Electric on an issue of unscheduled load-shedding. He also proposed to incorporate their shadow budget’s proposals in the budget.
On the contrary, the treasury MNAs lauded government for presenting ‘pro-people’ budget. Chaudhry Jaffar Iqbal Gujjar, on his turn, criticised PTI’s chief Imran Khan for not bringing any positive change in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP). He said mere sit-ins will not help the PTI as practical steps are also needed to serving the public at large.
He said federal budget 2017-18 was presented in line with the vision of the prime minister for the development of the country.
MNAs Muhammad Arshad, Raja Javed Ikhlas, Nasir Khattak and Asiya Nasir also lauded the allocation of funds for development projects.
