ISLAMABAD: Disregarding an opposition protest, the government on Friday bulldozed through the National Assembly a resolution extending for another 120 days the life of an ordinance imposing a gas cess on users other than domestic consumers.

All opposition parties also staged a walkout after a house voice vote adopting the resolution, which saved the Gas Infrastructure Development Cess Ordinance, 2014, from dying six days later and extending its life for another 120 days after which it must expire unless replaced by a bill passed by both houses of parliament.

“No, no”, “black law unacceptable”, opposition lawmakers chanted, while some of them tore up the day’s agenda as the parliamentary secretary for petroleum and natural resources, Shahzadi Umerzadi Tiwana, moved the resolution a day after it was deferred in the face of opposition protests and a walkout threat.

The Friday confrontation, with a government minister condemning what he called an un-parliamentary conduct of the opposition, shattered two weeks of cordiality between the two sides marked by the passage of a constitution amendment and amendments to the Pakistan Army Act to provide for speedy trials of terrorism suspects by military courts, before the house was prorogued after a 16-day session.

The opposition had earlier tried to scuttle the government’s resolution by getting the house adjourned for lack of quorum. But that did not happen thanks to five opposition members from the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) who had been boycotting the house daily from the start of the session over their unexplained complaints against the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa governor but who, on Friday, briefly sat with the ruling party on the other side of the aisle to help the government manage the quorum.

Inter-Provincial Coordination Minister Riaz Hussain Pirzada accused the opposition of violating the sanctity of the house through their “unparliamentary attitude”, and added: “I condemn it.”

Petroleum and Natural Resources Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi also rejected the opposition protest on the ground that the ordinance was, in fact, only a continuation of a 2011 act passed by parliament when the opposition Pakistan People’s Party and Muttahida Qaumi Movement were partners in a coalition government and said it was necessitated to generate funds for gas import projects like the Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline and Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India pipeline.

But the ordinance, promulgated on Sept 25, 2014, after rulings against the 2011 Act by the Islamabad and Peshawar high courts and later by the Supreme Court, prescribed higher cess rates ranging from Rs100 to Rs300 per MMBTU (one million British thermal unit BTU) compared Rs13 to Rs141/MMBTU in the Act.

MORE PETROL SHORTAGE DAYS: On a suggestion from Deputy Speaker Murtaza Javed Abbasi, the minister also assured the house that the current petrol shortages, which he said were being faced in parts of northern Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa by a 25 per cent increase in consumption this month compared to December mainly due to a decrease in petrol prices, would be overcome in five to eight days with the arrival of new supplies from abroad.

But Water and Power Minister Khawaja Mohammad Asif foresaw a longer period of 10 to 12 days for the removal of oil shortages, which he said were also partly responsible for a drop in electricity generation along with closure of canals for annual repairs, and promised a return to “normal loadshedding” in three to four months.

BILL AGAINST CYBER CRIME: In other developments of the day, Minister of State for Information Technology Anusha Rahman Khan introduced a comprehensive Prevention of Electronic Crimes Bill aimed, according to its statement of objects and reasons, to effectively prevent cyber crimes and contribute to national security and provide a secure environment for investment in information technology, e-commerce and e-payments system.

Published in Dawn, January 17th, 2015

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