Says people should not have unrealistic expectations from decisions; Kh Asif seeks time for briefing on COAS’s visit to Afghanistan
ISLAMABAD: Adviser to the PM on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz on Tuesday told the Senate that anti-Indian attitudes are a hurdle in the dialogue between India and Pakistan and people should not have unrealistic expectations in the decision-making process. Intertestingly, Minister of Defence Khawaja Muhammad Asif was caught unawares when Senate Chairman Mian Raza Rabbani asked him if he was prepared to brief the House on the recently-concluded visit of the army chief to Kabul, where he met the top Afghan leadership.
The minister sought a day to get a briefing on it and promised to let the Senate Secretariat know whether or not there was a need for an in-camera session, as the chair offered him in-camera proceedings, if necessary.
Aziz referred to the defence minister when the chairman and opposition senators asked him to also take the House into confidence on the army chief’s Kabul visit. “Does this mean the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is abdicating its responsibility?” Rabbani asked the adviser, who replied in the negative. The chair and senators insisted that the media report, based on a press statement, was inadequate for the House and called for sharing more information.
Earlier, Sartaj said that foreign secretaries of Pakistan and India would meet on the 14th or 15th of the next month to prepare a schedule for a comprehensive dialogue. He attributed the decision by Pakistan and India to resume the dialogue to many factors, including pressure from many leading countries, which wanted India to shun the hostile approach, as both the nations had so many issues to resolve.
He was making a statement on the short visit of the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Pakistan (Lahore) on December 25, about which PPP Senator Sehar Kamran had raised many questions in the House a day earlier.
Sartaj dispelled the impression that the entourage of the Indian prime minister visited Lahore without any visa and explained that Modi and 11 other members of his entourage were issued visas and other formalities completed on arrival while 100 others did not come out of the airport.
The adviser said the foreign secretaries would draw up a map for the next six months for talks on 10 identified subjects. He conceded the dialogue process was challenging as it involved difficult decisions and important issues. Sartaj said the prime ministers of two countries had met five times and the warmth of relations created by the Lahore meeting would hopefully have an impact on the formal dialogue.
However, he cautioned against unrealistic expectations from the dialogue process and said there would be progress on some issues soon while it would take time for progress on others.
The adviser said the foreign secretaries would draw up a map for the next six months for talks on 10 identified subjects.
Sartaj said the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi was a goodwill visit and it had been welcomed by the majority of people in Pakistan and India as well as the regional countries and the international community.
Responding to a point raised by the Leader of the Opposition Aitzaz Ahsan, Sartaj said no secret meeting was held between the prime ministers of Pakistan and India at Kathmandu.
Senators Saeed Ghani, Taj Haider, Sassui Palijo, Sehar Kamran of PPP, Hafiz Hamdullah of JUI-Fazl and MQM’s Muhammad Ali Saif, supporting the resumption of dialogue process and resolution of issues through talks, questioned the seriousness and sincerity of Modi, who had a hostile approach towards Pakistan and recently conceded to having played a role in the disintegration of Pakistan and who was not even ready to allow his team to play cricket with the Pak team here or in a third country.
They said they were dissatisfied by the briefing given by the adviser and sought more details about the meeting between Nawaz and Modi, saying the matter was not so simple as was being made to appear.
The senators emphasized that there should be an improvement in the Pak-India relations but with dignity and pride and on the basis of equality.
PML-N’s Abdul Qayyum and BNP’s Dr. Jehanzeb Jamaldeni said that the Pak-India resolve to resume the talks was a victory of the government’s successful policy and must be appreciated. They said the headway was in line with the government’s policy of having better relations with the neighbouring countries. Senator Qayyum said that India had agreed to talk to Pakistan, quitting its policy of no dialogue with Islamabad.
Jamaldeni contended that the meeting between Nawaz and Modi though informal was a positive gesture and should be seen with appreciation.
Winding up the debate on the admitted adjournment motion by Senator Tahir Hussain Mashhadi of MQM on the behalf of PTI’s Muhammad Azam Swati, JI’s Sirajul Haq, Saleem Mandviwala, Saeed Ghani and Osman Saifullah of PPP regarding the mini-budget involving additional taxes of Rs40 billion by imposing from 5 to 10 per cent regulatory duty on the import of 61 items, increasing duty by 5 per cent on 289 items and levying 1 per cent customs duty on hundreds of other items as per the IMF preconditions, Minister for Climate Change Zahid Hamid conceded that there was a shortfall of Rs39.8 billion in revenue collection for the first quarter.
He said that the reasons behind this shortfall were beyond the government’s control, which included global trade fall and plunge in commodities rates and this forced the government to take some remedial measures instead of printing new notes and slashing development allocations.
The minister noted that Rs38.7 billion could be collected under the government measures but hopefully there would be no more such measures needed for revenue collection in October and November was up. He said the measures taken by the government were in line with the Constitution, having hardly any impact on the common man.
Earlier, ruling PML-N Senator Muhammad Hamza, PPP’s Osman Saifull, Jamaldeni, Saeed Ghani, Usman Kakar of PkMAP, Mohsin Leghari of the treasury benches, Azam Swati, Taj Haider and MQM’s Mashhadi alleged that the mini-budget was aimed at further depleting the purchasing power of the common man, instead of broadening the tax net.
They questioned the claim of Finance Minister Ishaq Dar that there would be no mini-budgets and that the common man would be given relief. But the measures being taken by him ran contrary to his pledges and claims.
The senators expressed concern over the impact the additional taxation of Rs40 billion would have on the masses and said the step was like rendering parliament a debating chamber.
They questioned the utility of the FBR and wondered what role this massive department had when there was 87 percent indirect taxation while another five percent was at source reduction. They wondered should the FBR not be held accountable for its failure to achieve the revenue collection target instead of punishing the common man for its failures.
The senators also questioned the finance minister’s claim of putting the national economy on a sound footing, while it had been massively shaken due to the government’s flawed policies.
