Govt has required majority to pass budget: Asad Qaiser

LAHORE : Speaker National Assembly Asad Qaiser reached here by a train on Saturday on a three-day visit. Senator Ayub Afridi and MNA Junaid Akbar also arrived with him.

Talking to the media after arrival, the speaker said the PTI government would face no difficulty in passing the federal budget as the ruling party and allies have the required majority to pass the budget. He said political parties faced differences of opinion with one another on various issues but added that PTI was in a comfortable position in the House and would easily get the budget passed. He said the ruling party’s MNAs were in contact with the allies on the budget support and he could see no difficulty in passing of the budget.

He said the coming budget would be friendly with farmers and the poor. He hoped that the budget would provide a big relief to the masses, government employees and working classes. To a question, he said meetings were being held with the scholars regarding the devising a policy of having a government backed single Friday sermon across the country, adding that the opinion of the scholars will be sent to the Islamic Ideological Council for final approval.

He refused to reply a question about the leader of the opposition and PML-N president Shahbaz Sharif, saying the matter was in the court and he could not comment on that. He expressed sorrow that opposition parties were not attending the assembly session and the committees meetings. He asked the opposition parties to support the government legislate on electoral reforms. He said the country needed the electoral reforms to make the elections transparent and fair, adding that opposition should come into the House and offer its suggestions to improve the electoral system.

He said he had wanted to travel by train to review the improvement in facilities and performance of Railways department. He expressed satisfaction that the Railways had improved its facilities and services to a great extent and had become a better organisation as the trains were now reaching on time. He said that Railways would receive a new lease of life with the completion of ML-1 project. He said he had always wanted that Railways would develop like in the developed countries to provide better travel facilities to the people.

The speaker National Assembly later attended a dinner hosted by party leader Malik Karamat Khokhar where other party leaders including MNAs Sardar Talib Hussain Nakai, Nawab Sher Waseer, Haji Imtiaz, Brig (retd) Rahat Amanullah, Major (retd) Tahir Sadiq, Baitul Maal MS Malik Zaheer Abbas Khokhar, MPAs Malik Sarfraz and Malik Nadeem Bara were also present.