ISLAMABAD, June 17: The ruling party members in the Senate on Tuesday took exception to the rejection of their budgetary recommendations by the National Assembly and demanded of Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz to explain why the lower house bulldozed views of the upper house while adopting the finance bill 2003-04.

The senators observed that the National Assembly appeared to be in a hurry to pass the budget and adopted an incorrect procedure to deal with the Senate recommendations.

Some ministers tried to console the members by assuring them that their recommendations had been forwarded to all the departments concerned with instructions to implement them, the angry senators said due consideration was not given to their recommendations which they forwarded after two days of debate.

Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Raza Heraj faced an embarrassing situation when the senators refused to hear him. This forced Senate Deputy Chairman Khalilur Rehman, who presided over the session, to say that the house did not want to listen to the minister. “For God sake this is treasury benches and the sense of the house is that they do not want to hear you. This is your party,” the deputy chairman said, asking the minister to sit down.

“Are we a joke. Why the minister wanted to mislead the house by giving wrong statements,” Senator Kamil Agha said while objecting to the statement of Raza Heraj.

“The minister should sit when the chair said so,” Kamil Agha insisted.

Soon after the opposition walked out of the house, Commerce Minister Humayun Akhtar on a point of order tried to clarify that since the recommendations had nothing to do with the finance bill the line departments had been asked to implement them in letter and spirit.

Dr Khalid Ranjha said while dealing with the recommendations of the Senate, the National Assembly failed to comply with the Constitution or the rules of business and thus committed an insult to the upper house.

On one occasion, Production Minister Liaquat Jatoi had to assure the house that there was no question of disrespect.

Senator Kamil Agha said the Senate also recommended that the sales tax collectors should not be granted discretionary powers. He demanded that finance minister should explain this issue in the house.

Leader of the House in Senate Wasim Sajjad suggested that the finance minister should be asked to come and clarify the situation.

Nisar Memon maintained that the National Assembly should have taken into consideration the recommendations of the Senate during the passage of the finance bill. Even M. P. Bhindara MNA and some members had invited the attention of the speaker towards this issue but the members were not allowed to discuss these recommendations.

He deplored that out of 15 recommendations only one was incorporated in the finance bill.

He demanded that the chair should direct the finance minister to reply point by point on this issue.

Anwar Bhindar said the impression the senators had gathered was that these recommendations were not discussed point by point and instead the assembly discussed them in a combine form.

The speaker had the right to reject the recommendations but the way these were treated showed that the assembly members were in a great hurry and therefore the procedure adopted by the National Assembly was wrong, he said.

“We admit that our recommendations were not binding but at least these should have been taken up according to the rules, law and procedures,” he insisted.

Allama Abbas Kumaili of the MQM said it seemed the government had prepared the budget in advance and wanted to get it passed without allowing any change to it.

Abdul Razzaq Taheem said he was present in the gallery when the lower house was taking up the Senate recommendations. “I heard a sentence that the recommendations were rejected,” he said, adding a minister even observed that this had nothing to do with the Senate because it was a legislative work when a member cautioned against bulldozing these recommendations.

“Though we are grateful that the president has provided us an opportunity to discuss the finance bill, it makes me sad that the opportunity was lost,” he deplored.

Moheem Khan Baloch said for the first time the house got an opportunity to give recommendations on the finance bill but its recommendations were not given due importance.