Budget debate: Senate chairman suspends session

Calls in finance minister who reaches House after 40 minutes

ISLAMABAD: Senate Chairman Mian Raza Rabbani had to suspend the Upper House proceedings on Monday when opposition senators objected to absence of Finance Minister Ishaq Dar from the House when it was about to commence debate on the budget 2017-18. 

The finance minister rushed to the Senate after the opposition senators strongly objected to what they alleged the government’s non-seriousness towards the House and they refused to speak on the budget. The opposition senators referred to presence of low-grade ministry officials in the gallery to ‘cover’ the senators’ budget speeches.

This forced Raza Rabbani to suspend the House proceedings for 30 minutes, while the suspension continued for over 40 minutes. Rabbani also expressed concern over inadequate representation from the ministry.

The facts and figures mentioned in the budget and the latest Economic Survey were questioned in the House by PPP’s ex-finance minister Saleem Mandviwala, as he alleged the government looked only for point-scoring at the cost of credibility. He noted that on page 35, the number of donkeys had been witnessing constant increase of 1,00,000 a year for the last four years. He questioned why the increase was constant at 1,00,000: it was neither 90,000 nor 110,000.

He also expressed doubts on the government claim of 5.3 GDP growth this year and said the government’s own figures on exports, industrial and agricultural growth did not comply with the claim. The Rs0.6 million increase in salary of the president also echoed in the House while a meager increase in government employees salary and pension was objected to by the senators.

The government had to suffer defeat in head count vote, when Senator Saleem Mandviwala sought consideration and adoption of his House standing committee on finance’s report, presented in the House on May 15 regarding payments made to clear the circular debt of power sector, amounting to Rs480 billion in 2013. 

Law Minister Zahid Hamid insisted that the government’s viewpoint should have been made part of it. Mandviwala said that the government’s viewpoint had been included in the report and the House committee had consensus thereon. However, the minister opposed the move, the chair proceeded with the voice vote twice and then opted for head count, which found that nine government senators opposed the report while (opposition’s) 17 senators supported it.

Earlier, opposition senators proposed that the sitting be adjourned till next day with a warning to the government that adequate representation of the Official concerned be ensured during budget speeches.

The legislators pointed out while the House was to start budget debate, neither the Minister of Finance, finance secretary nor additional secretary was around with regard to their speeches. One of them suggested that there was no need for laying budget documents in the Senate as the National Assembly should straight away adopt the budget.  

There were strong calls from the opposition benches that that the government had responded to their demands for giving equal representation to the Senate at par with the National Assembly by sending junior officers to take notices of the budget proposals of the senators.

After the House resumed following the suspension, Dar assured the senators that the government gave due importance to the Senate and last year also, some 80 recommendations of the House were accommodated in the budget.

He said due to ailment, his ministry’s joint secretary could not lead his team in the gallery today and also could not timely inform about his non-availability. He added the additional secretary was on his way to be present in the gallery.

Regarding concerns of ANP Senator Ilyas Bilour and some other members, he said that allocations from the gross divisible pool of the provinces, for Fata, AJK and Gilgit-Baltistan would not affect their share.

After the budget, he summoned a meeting of provincial ministers in this connection to evolve consensus. Dar called on the provincial governments to show magnanimity for making space from the gross divisible pool for the development of Azad Kashmir, Gilgit-Baltistan and Fata. He agreed to a proposal by the chair that the matter be looked into by the Senate committee of the whole after the month of fasting.