Treasury senators criticise budget: Opposition boycotts pre-debate briefing
By Ahmed Hassan
ISLAMABAD June 7: The government on Wednesday came under fire when the ruling PML’s parliamentary group and coalition parties attacked its budget policy during a pre-debate briefing on the budget 2006-2007, insiders said.
Except for a couple of senators from the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA), all opposition parties including the PPP Parliamentarians, PML (Nawaz), ANP, BNP, PMAP, boycotted the briefing despite having been invited by the government.
The briefing chaired by Wasim Sajjad was spearheaded by Minister of State for Finance Omar Asghar Khan and adviser to the finance ministry Dr Ashfaq Ahmed Khan who explained salient features of the budget.
Sources said the minister failed to satisfy senators of the treasury and a couple of opposition lawmakers on relief measures introduced in the budget estimates. They demanded more incentives for lower strata of the society.
Dr Khalid Ranjha of the PML told the minister that the punitive measures proposed in the budget were extra-constitutional which would cause trouble to the government if challenged in a court of law.
The lawmakers expressed concern over what they termed low allocation for health and agriculture sectors and demanded a substantial increase in these allocations to provide cheap medical care to people and sufficient inputs to farmers.
They also complained about non-utilisation of funds on various development projects. Many of them criticised the government for providing pulses through Utility Stores and said the measure would not benefit more then 10 percent people. They demanded opening of Utility Stores on large scale, particularly in rural areas.
The senators were asked by leaders the parliamentary group to prepare for an effective response to opposition’s onslaught on the budget.
Later, Senator S. M. Zafar told newsmen that the major focus of the lawmakers was on prices of essential commodities which they wanted to be further brought down.
The attendance was thin and those who were in the briefing did not attend the Senate proceedings. The lawmakers were assured that their practicable recommendations would be incorporated into the final budget document.
The minister claimed that people were provided relief in all spheres of national life due to which their reaction to the budget was positive.
Senators of both sides criticised government’s failure to act against those responsible for sugar crisis.
