ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Human Rights Dr Shireen Mazari, while taking part in budget debate on Tuesday, said the last two governments did not apply for membership of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) only to hide money-laundering of their leaders.
The minister held the PML-N government and the PPP government from 2008 to 2013 for the situation which Pakistan was facing from the FATF being on its grey list. Mazari said the Parliament should investigate as to why Pakistan did not apply for membership of the FATF when 39 other countries including Indonesia and Malaysia are its members while Saudi Arabia recently gets its member. “Had we got membership of FATF, Pakistan might not have facing the present situation,” she said.
The PTI leader said the finance ministers, finance secretary and other senior officers of concerned departments were responsible for the negligence and as such matter needed investigations. “The last two governments avoided to get FATF membership so that their money-laundering does not come into question,” she said, adding the country has been suffering due to individual corruption and money-laundering.
The minister pointed out that when FATF formed, its first agenda was directed against money-laundering while terrorism was included later in its task. She said that Pakistan also could not stop hearing of the Indian spy Kulbhushan in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for not registering a bilateral treaty signed between Pakistan and India in 2008, with the United Nations. The agreement between two countries stated that any spy would not have any diplomatic access and other facilities. She said Pakistan strongly objected when India took case of Kulbhushan to the ICJ, apprising the court of the bilateral agreement. “However, the court told Pakistan, the treaty is not registered with the UN or ICJ,” she said. The minister said that Pakistan was facing hearing in the ICJ because of negligence on part of the last two governments and the Parliament should also investigate the same matter.
Federal Minister Fawad Chaudhry said it was for the first time in country’s history that the incumbent has allocated Rs43 billion for Science, Technology and other such fields. He said the only to take forward the country was to strengthen institutions and follow policies based on merits.
In this connection, he said a lot of criticism is unleashed on the armed forces but he observed that it was also fact that the forces follow a merit-based system. “That is why they are sixth strongest armed forces in the world,” he said, regretting that havoc was played with merit in country’s research institutions and other departments. The minister said that country’s other departments and institutions should learn from merit-based system in armed forces.
The minister regretted that country’s loans were Rs6000 million in 2008 which increased to Rs30,000 billion in the next 10 but still then governments were unable to justify those loans.
Talking about the Charter of Economy, the minister said the government was ready to support the opposition leader on the issue if his party and other oppositions were not supporting. He said that Khawaja Asif supported the Charter of Economy in the National Assembly while thumbing desk but changed his stance as soon he came out of the House.
He said that the accountability was in the country one year before but now the accountability was getting the political support and the Prime Minister Imran Khan gave new narrative on accountability. “The only change the politics see in the country is rise of Imran Khan,” he said.
Fawad Chaudhry said out of Rs24,000 billion loans taken in 10 years, the Punjab chief minister used Rs11,000 billion and two chief ministers in Sindh spent Rs8,000 billion.
Chaudhry Muhammad Ashraf of PML-N called for special incentives for agriculture sector to boost country’s economy as majority of the Pakistani citizens relies on it.
Federal Minister, Dr. Fahmida Mirza said the government had presented a difficult budget in difficult times.
Responding to criticism from the opposition, she said the PPP governments in Sindh could not give even single education policy for the province but now they were asking the present government to give account of its 10 months performance. “They were not elected but non-elected people running the Sindh government,” she said.
The Deputy Speaker time and again warned the PPP parliamentarians when they raised slogans during speech of the former speaker Fahmida Mirza while Asif Zardari also arrived in the House in the meantime. “Those who raise objections on the National Finance Commission, do not form the finance commission in Sindh,” she said.
Noman Shaikh of PPP said they were not afraid of accountability but it should be undertaken on equal basis. He said the affairs of the country were hands of those people who were inexperienced and immature. He also questioned if the PTI government did not like Asif Zardari then why his past colleagues were taken in present setup. “You have handed over government to thieves and dacoits while including them in your setup,” he said.
Syed Ghulam Mustafa Shah of PPP said imposition of heavy taxes on salaried class should be reviewed. He said subsidies should be announced for agriculture sector to strengthen Pakistan’s economy.
Federal Minister for Water, Faisal Vawda criticised the past two governments for not completing huge projects of water reservoirs due to costs of project had now raised by billions of rupees.
He said the PPP government initiated 18 water projects worth Rs640 billion but could not start those projects due to which the cost surged Rs1100 billion. Similarly, he said the PML-N government also planned projects at that time cost Rs975 billion but completed a few and now the cost of same project had raised to over Rs1600 billion.