Opposition parties on Tuesday walked out of the National Assembly (NA) to protest against the alleged imposition of new taxes by the government.
Leader of Opposition Syed Khursheed Shah on a point of order said the government was imposing taxes and introducing a mini-budget everyday by putting an extra burden on the people.
“Such attitude is weakening the Parliament. We will not sit in the House until the government takes back its decision,” he said while announcing a walkout.
He said the opposition had extended full support to the government, but it was not serious in providing relief to the people. “We are all political people. The masses have sent us here to solve their problems. But the Parliament is being sidelined,” he said.
Khursheed said the government should have taken decisions that could make them popular, but instead it was burdening the poor. If the imposition of new taxes was necessary then the government should have taken up the matter in the Parliament. The government should not have relied on the Economic Coordination Committee to levy new taxes instead of the Parliament, he added.
Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) leader Rasheed Godail supported PPP’s viewpoint and said that more taxes should be imposed upon the rich to provide relief to the poor. It was unfortunate that despite several decades having gone by Pakistan had not a become welfare state, he added.
Jamaat-e-Islami members also joined PPP and MQM in the walkout.
