27 July 2004	Tuesday	09 Jamadi-us-Saani 1425

Please Visit our Sponsor (Ads open in separate window)

ISLAMABAD, July 26: The opposition and treasury benches in the National Assembly joined hands on Monday to blast the agricultural package announced by General Pervez Musharraf which, they said, instead of helping the farmers had caused increase in prices of urea , tractors and other agricultural inputs.

Earlier, the combined opposition staged an en block walkout from the house to register its protest against the oath-taking by the two MQM MNAs, Abid Ali Umang and Nisar Ahmed Panwar, and their declaring successful against the election commission's decision as successful by a Sindh High court verdict.

At the outset of the house proceedings, Speaker Chaudhry Amir Hussain asked the two new MQM MNAs to take oath of their office. Liaquat Baloch of the MMA and Tehmina Daultana of PML-N wanted to speak on a point of order which the Speaker did not allow ruling them out as against the rules.

As a result, the entire opposition - MMA and ARD - staged a walkout from the house. The oath-taking was thus done in the absence of the opposition benches and the house was run with only 71 members, 16 less then required for a quorum.

Hanif Abbasi of MMA pointed out lack of quorum during the oath-taking of the MNAs which was disallowed by the Speaker, who later ordered a counting of the sitting members.

On a point of order, Shagufta Jamani of PPP Parliamentarians told the house that an injustice was going to be done to the students of Sindh as entry tests were being held at Hasanabadal cadet college at 8.30am on Tuesday when the Karachi board of intermediate had not yet declared results.

Major (retired) Syed Tanvir, parliamentary secretary defence, supported the female member's point and sought a clear direction by the chair to ensure justice with the students of Sindh.

Earlier, through their combined call attention notice, Syed Naveed Qamar of PPP Parliamentarians, Sardar Bahadur, Ishaq Khakwani, Sardar Tufail and Sardar Farukh Leghari invited the attention of the house towards a sharp increase of up to Rs35 per bag in the urea which they thought would spoil the benefits of the agricultural package that was announced by Gen Musharraf in June.

The house, by consensus asked the government to take immediate steps by involving all the concerned ministries to arrest the trend of huge price hike of the agricultural inputs, particularly the most important input urea, which was used by more than 80 per cent agriculturists in the country.

The members, mostly from the treasury benches, strongly criticised the government for not taking sufficient safeguards against price hike of urea. They asked the government either to withdraw the GST from urea or to refix its deal price at 330 per bag as it was at the time of the agricultural package announced.

They said the agricultural package had benefited the farmer less than it has caused loss in terms of increase in prices of tractors and other inputs. A treasury member claimed that the price of DAP which the government had lowered by Rs100 per bag had shown upward trend instead of coming down.

Hafiz Hussain Ahmed of MMA blamed the government for doling out permits of hundreds of thousands of tons of fertilisers to Afghanistan which had caused the price hike. Qazi Hussain Ahmed attributed the price hike of agricultural inputs to international conspiracy to destroy agriculture in Pakistan on the behest of IMF and World Bank.

Haji Khuda Bakhsh Nizamani alleged that the cotton prices in Sanghar district and other areas of Sindh had been decreased by Rs1,000 per 40kg in last couple of days.

Responding to the criticism by members across the divide, the parliamentary secretary of the ministry of food and agriculture, Rajab Ali Baloch, said his ministry had no control over the prices of agricultural inputs and ministry of finance and industry should be asked for the same.

He said under a phased programme government was withdrawing subsidy on gas supplied to fertilizer manufacturers and imposition of GST on the production was main cause of increase.

The Speaker later decided to defer the motion till the minister of state on parliamentary affairs came up with official statement after consulting prime minister Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain.

Before deferring the motion, however, it took a lot of debate on mechanism through which the concerned ministry was pressed enough to take steps for bringing down prices of urea.

It was proposed by some members that the motion might be sent to the standing committee on cabinet division; others said speaker should issue executive directive to the concerned ministries to take up the issue urgently and resolve it.

However, minister of state for parliamentary affairs said: "It would be pertinent to take all the aspects of the matter into account before a decision" and asked for giving him time to discuss it with concerned quarters, including leader of the house before returning with an official statement.

Speaking on point of order specially allowed by the chair in the closing movements of the proceedings, Qazi Hussain Ahmed agitated his twice expulsion from the tribal areas in the NWFP and demanded of the house to take notice of the draconian FCR laws under which the tribesmen continue to be ruled.

He said while the Constitution allowed him to move across the tribal areas still he was denied entry into Bajaur Agency and Darra Adamkhel without assigning any reasons or giving prior notice.

Ms Tehmina Daultana warned the government against sending Pakistani troops to Iraq, otherwise, the image of the army would be tarnished among the comity of nations. She feared that the angry Iraqis might kidnap more and more Pakistanis and kill the army jawans in reaction to the rulers' policy of submitting to foreign dictates.

Syed Khurshid Shah of PPP Parliamentarians demanded lifting of movement of wheat and also setting up of house committee as committed in earlier sitting to probe the matters of 'Bahria town'.