Coalition partners support opposition’s NFC demand
By Amir Wasim
ISLAMABAD, June 10: Some leading members of the ruling coalition joined voices with the opposition on Friday to demand early finalization of the National Finance Commission (NFC) Award on the second day of general debate in the National Assembly on the 2005-06 budget.
Taking part in the debate, former president Sardar Farooq Ahmed Leghari and parliamentary leader of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) Dr Farooq Sattar supported the opposition’s demand that the NFC Award should immediately be finalized to remove sense of deprivation among small provinces.
Mr Leghari was of the view that provincial and district governments would not be able to carry out development activities without finalization of the NFC award.
The former president stressed the need for building more dams in the country. He said that while India was building water reservoirs, the people in Pakistan were unable to decide which dam should be built first.
He asked the opposition to support the government in building water reservoirs. He also called for using coal and gas reserves to meet energy needs.
Mr Leghari regretted that the people had lost confidence in the judiciary. He called for reactivating the Supreme Judicial Council to restore the people’s confidence in the judiciary which was a must for economic prosperity.
Mr Leghari said the government was not paying the required attention to the issue of good governance. He criticized the provincial governments, particularly the Punjab government, for interfering in the local government affairs.
Taking part in the debate, Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) president and the parliamentary leader of the religious alliance Qazi Hussain Ahmad asked Punjab and Sindh to play the role of big brothers and show leniency towards the smaller provinces while finalizing the NFC Award.
The MMA leader asked the prime minister to bring his own wealth to Pakistan from foreign banks if he was sincere to the country. He claimed that the rich people of Pakistan had deposited a total of $30 billion in foreign banks.
The MMA chief said overseas Pakistanis earned $75 billion a year, but they sent only $4 billion back to the country. “How could the government ask overseas Pakistanis to transfer their money to Pakistan when the prime minister and the ministers were shifting their own assets abroad,” he queried.
Qazi said the country was unable to make any progress due to prevailing corruption in society. He said that generals had become property dealers and property mafia had been exempted from the tax collection. He claimed that real trade deficit was $5 billion and inflation was touching the mark of 12 per cent.
Dr Farooq Sattar of the MQM said that besides population, the NFC Award should be decided on the basis of area of the province and backwardness. He was of the view that resources should be distributed among provinces on the basis of revenue collection. He further demanded that the provinces should be given the right to collect general sales tax (GST). He also called for giving complete autonomy to the provinces.
The MQM leader said that there should be uniformed electricity rates in the country. He said that taxes should be reduced on utility bills to provide relief to the common man.
Dr Sattar called for enhancing budgetary allocation for education and health sectors. He said that new water and power projects should be launched in the country. The minimum wage, he added, should be Rs5,000 instead of Rs3,000 proposed in the budget.
The MQM MNA expressed the hope that there would be reduction in the defence budget after resolution of the Kashmir issue between India and Pakistan.
Makhdoom Shah Mehmood Qureshi of the People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPP) said the budget would increase the gap between the rich and the poor. He said the government had been giving loans to influential industrialists at the rate of four per cent while the poor farmers had to face difficulties in getting a Rs10,000 loan with an 18 per cent mark-up.
The PPP leader said only 49.1 per cent of last year’s Rs272 billion for the PSDP was spent in the first 10 months but by the year end the spending was 100 per cent. He said the price hike in the country was due to imposition of GST on fertilizers, gas, electricity, ghee and cooking oil.
Referring to Minister of State for Finance Omar Ayub Khan, he said, the grandson of Ayub Khan wanted to bring back the time of his grandfather. He said while the government had announced 25 per cent reduction in duty on import of cars it had imposed five per cent duty on import of used clothes.
The PPP leader also ridiculed the government’s claim that it had broken the begging bowl, saying there had been an increase of Rs535 billion in domestic debt.
Others who took part in the debate included Pervez Malik, Qari Gul Rehman, Nayyar Bokhari, Syed Qurban Ali Shah, Sardar Bahadur Khan, Mehnaz Rafi, Murtaza Satti, Mir Hazar Khan Bijarani and Mufti Abrar.
