ISLAMABAD, June 23: The opposition on Wednesday did not create any difficulty for the treasury benches and gave a virtual walkover to the government when the National Assembly began discussion on cut motions during the budget session.
Speaker Chaudhry Amir Hussain handled the situation very tactfully, not allowing every mover of the motion to speak. Instead of voting on each motion, the speaker asked the members to give a voice vote after clubbing motions belonging to one ministry.
The opposition members did not object to this practice as the speaker announced that this procedure had been approved by leaders of all the parties at the business advisory committee meeting that took place before the session started.
The treasury members were very relaxed, not even bothering to listen to the opposition members when they spoke on the cut motions. Several opposition members who had moved the cut motions were themselves not present in the house when the speaker called their names to give them the floor.
Even PPP president Makhdoom Amin Fahim was not present in the house when the cut motions on defence and education ministries were being presented. The treasury members remained present on the premises of the Parliament House, roaming inside and outside the assembly hall.
Sources told Dawn that the opposition had submitted nearly 1,000 cut motions to give a tough time to the government during the budget session. Sources in the ARD told Dawn that during the parliamentary party meeting of the alliance before the session, several PPP members lashed out at Syed Khursheed Shah and Syed Naveed Qamar for agreeing to the terms set by the government during the meeting of the business advisory committee.
