ISLAMABAD, June 18: The Senate on Wednesday unanimously adopted seventy-six proposals for their incorporation in the federal budget for the next fiscal year.

The proposals will be sent to the National Assembly for their inclusion in the budget. The recommendations have been formulated by the Senate Standing Committee on Finance and Revenue and contained input from the State Bank, Federal Board of Revenue, Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources, Federal Bureau of Statistics and Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan.

Talking about the recommendations, Professor Khurshid Ahmed, an active member of the committee, said the committee had received 296 recommendations, of them 76 had been formulated for incorporation in the budget.

The chair referred a privilege motion questioning the legality of a move to increase the number of Supreme Court judges and amend 26 other acts of parliament through the Finance Bill to the Senate Privilege Committee.

It was moved by Anwar Bhinder and Dr Khalid Ranjha of the PML-Q and Professor Khurshid of the MMA.

Mr Bhinder said that 17 substantive laws should not be amended through the bill, adding that these proposals seeking amendments in different clauses of these acts should be deleted.

The acts include The Pakistan Penal Code 1860, The Code of Criminal Procedure 1898, The Provincial Employees’ Social Security Ordinance 1965, The West Pakistan Industrial and Commercial Employment (Standing Orders) Ordinance 1968, The Securities and Exchange Ordinance 1969, The Minimum Wages for Unskilled Workers Ordinance 1969, The Workers Welfare Fund Ordinance, The Employees’ Old-age Benefits Act 1976, The Modarba Companies and Modarba Ordinance 1980, The Companies Ordinance, The Supreme Court (Number of Judges) Act 1997, The Regulation of Generation, Transmission and Distribution of Electric Power Act 1997, The Securities and Exchange Commission Ordinance 2000, The Insurance Ordinance 2000, The Listed Companies Ordinance 2002 and The Federal Board of Revenue Act 2007.

He said the insertion of irrelevant pieces of the legislation in the Finance Bill was a clear attempt to bypass the Senate in the lawmaking process.

Describing the inclusion of irrelevant matters in the Finance Bill as “immoral and unconstitutional”, Prof Khurshid said the bill should be confined to the matters relating to taxes and increase or reduction in charges.

Leader of the House Raza Rabbani admitted that 12 pieces of the legislation in the bill were irrelevant. However, he said the privilege motion was premature because no breach had been committed and these were only proposals.

He said that former Senate chairman Wasim Sajjad had given a ruling that it was a privilege of the National Assembly speaker to declare any piece of legislation as part of the Finance Bill. However, he said that he had no objection if the motion was referred to the privilege committee.

He regretted that no-one had raised the point during the last five years when the house was being run under the LFO and no privilege motion was moved on the issue. However, he said the democratic government would not oppose the motion and requested the chair to refer it to the committee for discussion.

Mr Rabbani said the ministry of finance was already withdrawing five clauses -- 2, 3, 13, 22 and 27 -- and the withdrawal of another three clauses was under consideration. Since the matter had been referred to the privilege committee, it should not be pressed further, he added.

Leader of the Opposition in Senate Kamil Ali Agha endorsed the viewpoint of Mr Rabbani and said the withdrawal of five clauses showed that the government had supported their stance.