said.
Abdul Waseem of the MQM demanded the resignation of the minister for water and power, saying that the government had badly failed to fulfil its promise of putting an end to loadshedding.
Sahibzada Tariqullah of the JI said that many parts of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa were suffering 20-hour-long loadshedding. Aftab Khan Sherpao and Ghulam Ahmad Bilour also criticised the government for its failure to control the power outages. They suggested that a committee should be formed to find an out-of-box solution of the crisis.
Sheikh Rasheed Ahmad of the Awami Muslim League said all the opposition parties were united on the issue of loadshedding.Taking advantage of the absence of the opposition, the treasury benches adopted 49 more Demands for Grants for the fiscal year 2015-2016 for different ministries, divisions and departments on which the opposition had moved the cut motion.
The demands related to the Cabinet Division, Aviation Division, Airports Security Force, Capital Administration and Development Division, Establishment Division, National Security Division, Communication Division, Foreign Affairs Division, Interior Division, Narcotics Control Division, National Food Security and Research Division, Petroleum and Natural Resources Division, Planning, Development and Reforms Division, Water and Power, Federal Public Service Commission, Meteorology, Prime Minister’s Office, Board of Investment, Atomic Energy, Stationery and Printing, Passport Organisation, Civil Armed Forces, Frontier Constabulary, Pakistan Coast Guards, Pakistan Rangers, Geological Survey and Suparco.
With the approval of the grants and demands, the NA will now take up the Finance Bill 2016 today (Tuesday) to get the fiscal year 2015-2106 budget approved. It will take effect from July 1.
It is likely that after getting approval of the Finance Bill 2016, the National Assembly will also give approval to the Supplementary Budget of the fiscal year 2014-15.
While talking to newsmen outside the Parliament House after staging a walkout on Monday, the Opposition Leader in the NA Syed Khursheed Shah pointed out that he felt his party’s failure was its inability to address the water and power woes of the people.
He emphasised that the prime minister’s promise that there would be no loadshedding during the month of Ramazan had never been fulfilled. He pointed out that across Pakistan, over 250 people had lost their lives due to the heatwave. He said the government’s failure had brought the opposition parties on one platform.
PTI Vice Chairman Shah Mehmood Qureshi said that while loadshedding had been a longstanding problem in Pakistan but power outages had never been so long so that more than 100 lives were lost due to heatstroke. He said that Tharparkar has reportedly been without electricity since June 6.
He criticised the government for having doubled the power-tariff but miserably failing to address the line losses. “They paid a hefty amount for clearing the circular debt but once again the dues have risen to Rs300 billion,” Qureshi added.
Parliamentary leader of MQM Rasheed Godel came down hard on the government saying Karachi’s water and power woes had aggravated. He criticised the prime minister and finance minister, complaining that they don’t even have time to meet elected representatives from the city that provides 68pc of the revenue to the government.
He alleged that the government was only interested in projects that make it look big — citing the metro bus project.