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| June 15, 2005 | Wednesday | Jumadi-ul-Awwal 7, 1426 |
‘NFC Award finalized by Musharraf not acceptable’
ISLAMABAD, June 14: Combined opposition in the Senate on Tuesday announced that it would not accept the National Finance Commission (NFC) Award expected to be finalized by Gen Pervez Musharraf. Speaking at a news conference here on Tuesday, the senators belonging to the People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPP), Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA), Awami National Party (ANP) and Pakhtoonkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP) criticized the Federal Budget 2005-06 and termed it “anti-people and anti-poor.”
Opposition Leader in the Senate Raza Rabbani said it was the third budget, which had been presented by the government without finalization of the NFC Award. He criticized the decision of the provincial chief ministers to authorize Gen Pervez Musharraf to finalize the NFC Award. He said if Gen Musharraf would finalize the NFC Award then it would be the violation of Article 160 of the Constitution. “We will not accept any unconstitutional and illegal NFC Award,” he said.
Mr Rabbani said under the Constitution, the president could only notify the NFC Award after its finalization. He regretted that on one hand, the Cabinet Division was spending huge amount on buying luxurious cars and on the other, it had no money for the provinces to settle the NFC Award issue.
Interestingly, the two MMA senators Prof Khurshid Ahmed and Maulana Gul Naseeb Khan did not give any reply to various questions as to why NWFP Chief Minister Akram Khan Durrani had also authorized Gen Musharraf to finalize the NFC Award, if they believed that it was unconstitutional.
Prof Khurshid Ahmed preferred to remain silent while Maulana Gul Naseeb only said there was no democracy in the country, which was a ground reality. He did not give any specific reply to the question that why the NWFP chief minister agreed to the decision to give powers to Gen Musharraf for finalization of the NFC Award.
Meanwhile, Raza Rabbani said after assuming the office of the acting president by Senate Chairman Mohammadmian Soomro, the Upper House had once again become headless, as there was no deputy chairman at present. He said the opposition would raise this issue on the floor of the house as well.
Earlier, PML-N senator Ishaq Dar said the government had not come up with replies to any of the questions, raised by him during his speech on the budget. He again challenged the government’s figures and claimed that actual fiscal deficit was much more than what the government had claimed.
The PML-N senator said last year, only 17 recommendations of the Senate were adopted out of the total 32. This year, he said, the Senate had made 58 recommendations. He said minimum wages should be increased to Rs3,500 and a purchase tax should be imposed on property.
PkMAP Senator Raza Mohammad Raza suggested that the Senate should also be given the power to pass the money bill. He said if the Senate could not be given powers, then at least a joint session of both the houses should be convened to discuss the budgetary recommendations of the senate.
The PkMAP senator said last year the budgetary allocation for defence was Rs193 billion but actual spending were Rs216 billion. He said this year, Rs223 billion had been allocated as the defence budget and it was expected that the actual spending would cross Rs250 billion. He said actually the government was already spending over Rs300 billion on defence sector if pensions of the retired military personnel was also included in it.
He claimed that the government was trying to meet the huge deficit through privatisation and selling of national assets.
ANP Senator Asfandyar Wali was of the view that sense of deprivation would increase among the provinces without finalization of the NFC Award.
Prof Khurshid Ahmed called for making Federal Bureau of Statistics an autonomous organization. He said the government had not done proper homework before presenting the budget. He demanded that the NFC Award should be finalized before passage of the budget in the National Assembly. He further said the loans agreements and economic pacts should be presented before the parliament for ratification.
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