June 16, 2008	Monday	Jamadi-us-Sani 11, 1429

ISLAMABAD, June 15: Senators showed little interest in the discussion on the budget, resulting in lack of quorum during the two Senate sessions on Sunday.

Most of the time their numbers fluctuated between 10 and 12 against a required minimum of 25 and arguments continued because no one pointed out the lack of quorum.

Leader of the Opposition in the Senate Kamil Ali Agha said it was not a welfare-oriented budget.

He said the industrial sector was facing grave problems because of unprecedented increase in oil prices. He said that cheap hydro-electricity was the answer to people’s problems.

He proposed that all loans up to Rs200,000 should be written off.

He said the government’s decision to control non-development expenditure was a positive step, but it still remained to be implemented. Mr Agha said that it was time to strengthen parliament and “solve issues here, and not on the streets”.

Senator Mushahid Hussain claimed that the budget had been prepared by the team left by Shaukat Aziz.

“Pakistan is facing a crisis of governance because no one knows who is making decisions.”

Praising the decision to bring the defence budget in parliament, he said that there was a need to redefine ‘national security’.

Criticising the government, Mushahid Hussain said that it was victimising its political opponents. “Cases are being registered … in Sindh, Balochistan and Punjab.”

He said that the opposition had not been provided a copy of the constitutional package yet, adding that it could not be adopted without the opposition’s cooperation.

He said that the PPP had announced holding an all-parties conference on Balochistan, but so far no concrete step had been taken.

He said that his party wanted the coalition government to be “successful … because we all have stakes in the success of this system … We are ready to cooperate”.

Prof Sajid Mir said that before scrapping the Kalabagh dam project, it should have been discussed in parliament. He opposed the proposal to withdraw subsidies on foodstuff and electricity bills.

Senator Dr Kausar Firdaus said the budget lacked long-term solutions for tackling the problems of unemployment and inflation.

She said that at least Rs100 billion should have been allocated for education, health and water sectors.

Senator Tahir Hussain Mashhadi called for abolishing the concurrent list and granting greater autonomy to provinces. “Stronger federating units guarantee a strong centre.”

Criticising the budget, he said that no special attention had been given to address the problems of price-hike, unemployment, energy crisis or other problems in education and health sectors.

Senator Simeen Siddiqui called for a phased withdrawal of subsidies on utilities and foodstuff to control the budget deficit.

She said despite being an agricultural country, domestic farming sector remained the “most neglected area of the national economy”.

She suggested that male health workers should also be appointed to supplement Lady Health Workers.

Praising the issuance of Benazir card scheme, she said that Rs1,000 was insufficient to help the poor.

She urged the government to simplify the procedure for setting up new industries and said irritants hampered investment.

Senator Sameena Rauf urged the government to review the national trade policy and said only surplus items should be exported and domestic needs should not be overlooked.

She also called for strengthening the farm sector and said that the irrigation system should be improved to control wastage of irrigation water. Senator Sahibzada Khalid Jan praised the budget and said that more attention should be paid to the agriculture sector, particularly in the field of agricultural research.

He said that the Benzair Income Support Programme was a good step, but it should not be run on the pattern of Pakistan Baitul Mal and the Zakat Fund.

He said that several projects under the Tameer-i-Watan and Tameer-i-Pakistan programmes remained incomplete and called for an investigation by a Senate committee.

Senator Talha Mehmood said that billions of rupees had been “wasted on operations in Swat and Waziristan”, which could have been used for providing subsidies to control prices of daily use items.

He said: “It was strange that we have the world’s fourth largest coal reserves but still face an energy crisis”.

Senator Haroon Akhtar defended the previous government’s policies.