26 June 2004	Saturday	07 Jamadi-ul-Awwal 1425

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ISLAMABAD, June 25: The parliamentary secretary of Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy (ARD), Izhar Amrohvi, has accused National Assembly Speaker Chaudhry Amir Hussain of violating the rules in getting the budget passed in a haste.

Talking to Dawn here on Friday, the ARD leader said the speaker had violated Rules 168 and 178 of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in National Assembly 1992 by not allowing a debate on the supplementary budget.

Mr Amrohvi said Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz had presented the supplementary budget on June 22 and the budget could not have been passed before June 25 under Rules 168 and 178 of the NA rules.

Rule 178 states: "The procedure for dealing with supplementary estimates of expenditure and excess demands shall as far as possible be the same as prescribed for the budget....."

Rule 168, which prescribes the procedure for the federal budget, states: "The speaker shall, in consultation with the minister-in-charge allot days for the different stages of the budget referred to in Rule 167: provided that at least two days shall elapse between the day the budget is presented and the first day allotted for the general discussion on the budget."

According to Mr Amrohvi, the rules clearly states that the National Assembly should have waited for at least two days before passing the supplementary budget. He said under the rules, the budget for 2004-5 could not have been passed before June 25 while the government get it passed on June 24.

Moreover, he said, there was no mention in the "order of the day", issued for the NA session on June 24, that the finance bill would be presented for voting. Instead, he said, the order of the day contained cut motions, moved by various opposition members.

He said even if the speaker was not willing to take up the cut motions of the opposition members, he should have adjourned the House proceedings for one more day after the walkout of the Opposition.

He said perhaps the speaker had been directed by his "bosses" that the budget should be passed on June 24 before the inaugural meeting of the controversial National Security Council (NSC).

He said Gen Musharraf had criticized Opposition leader Maulana Fazlur Rahman and NWFP Chief Minister Akram Durrani for not attending the NSC meeting, but why did he not invite the acting Senate chairman to the meeting?

He said under the rules the deputy chairman of the Senate assumed the charge of the chairman in his absence. According to the law, passed by the government itself, the Senate chairman is a member of the NSC.