ISLAMABAD: During the general debate in the National Assembly on the new budget on Saturday, two lawmakers of main opposition parties challenged a federal cess on natural gas as a violation of the Constitution and demanded that any such collection must go to gas-producing provinces.

The objection to the finance bill’s proposal to authorise the federal government to increase levy on non-domestic consumers by an amendment to the Gas Infrastructure Development Cess Act, 2011, came from Nafeesa Shah of PPP and Imran Khattak of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) whose provinces of Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, respectively, are gas producers.

Ms Shah cited the proposed cess at the maximum rate of Rs300 per British thermal unit MMBTU among what she called some budget proposals going against the Constitution and said the collections from the levy was the right of provinces.

She also demanded a subsidy for agriculture equivalent to 2.2 per cent of the gross domestic product and an additional share for Sindh from the National Finance Commission award for fighting terrorism in Karachi as being given to KP.

Mr Khattak said the federal government could not impose such a cess on provincial resources without amending the Constitution.

SHOCKING INTER­RUPTION: The sixth day of the general debate was interrupted with a shock during its afternoon segment when a Christian member of the ruling PML-N, Khalil George, broke the news to the house of the killing of a Christian member of the Balochistan Assembly, Handery Masih, by his own bodyguard in Quetta earlier in the day.

The house observed two minutes silence to pray for the departed soul before members from almost all parties condemned the killing and urged the government to provide adequate security to minorities.

Earlier, a Christian member of the government-allied Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-F, Asiya Nasir, spoke angrily about what she called discrimination suffered by the minority communities, such as Christians, attacks on their places of worship and hate material in textbooks. She demanded the creation of a separate federal ministry for minorities.

Published in Dawn, June 15th, 2014