ISLAMABAD, June 15: Members of the opposition Democratic Alliance on Tuesday presented their recommendations to the Senate secretariat for incorporating them in the federal budget.

The recommendations were released to the media at a press conference jointly addressed by People's Party Parliamentarians (PPP) Senator Raza Rabbani, Enver Baig (PPP), Dr Safdar Abbassi (PPP), Akbar Khawaja (PPP), Latif Khosa (PPP), Ishaq Dar of the Pakistan Muslim League-N, Asfandyar Wali of the Awami National Party and Raza Mohammed Raza of the Pakhtoonkhwa Milli Awami Party.

The opposition members recommended that the defence expenditure be reduced from Rs193 billion to Rs163.75 billion. They said in the year 2000-01, the defence budget was Rs131 billion including pension of retired army personnel. According to the new policy, they said, Rs38 billion to be paid as pension would now be paid from the defence expenditure.

Moreover, they said, with the improving climate on the eastern borders and a friendly government on the western borders, the defence budget should be curtailed. The opposition members recommended that the public sector development programme be increased from Rs202 billion to Rs232 billion.

They also called for reducing proposed allocation to the president secretariat to Rs134.5 million. They demanded that Rs87.5 million be increased in the budget for agriculture research.

They said the deregulation policy on petroleum products should be ended and brought into the budgetary purview to avoid a situation where every 15 days a mini-budget was brought.

They asked the government to withdraw Rs22.541 million allocation for the National Security Council and Rs74.01 million for the National Reconstruction Bureau (NRB) "as these institutions are not required."

The senators suggested that allocation to National Accountability Bureau be held in abeyance till a judge of the Supreme Court or a person qualified to be a judge of the SC took over as its chairman.

The opposition senators also called for abolishing the ministry of information to save an expenditure of Rs1.5 billion. They said the development budget of the labour and manpower ministry be increased by Rs1.73 billion which should be spent on development of housing colonies for the industrial and agriculture workers.

The Alliance members said Rs652 million, allocated for foreign faculty hiring by the Higher Education Commission, should be added to budgetary allocations for provision of safe drinking water.

Similarly, the proposed allocation of Rs1.450 billion for madrassa reforms should be reduced by 50 per cent, they added. They further suggested that the sales tax, central excise duty and other taxes, levied on motorcycles and bicycles should be abolished to make prices down to affordable levels.