Daily Times

The Lower House of Parliament seems merely fulfilling a formality as ongoing general debate on the federal budget got no special attention from the treasury members on Tuesday which has perturbed the opposition as well as some treasury members.

While speaking on point of order on floor of the house, federal Minister for Human Rights Riaz Hussain Pirzada said “it is very important session and the NA proceedings should be started on time instead of one or more hours delay,” adding that the house started proceedings with one hour delay which, according to him, is not a good tradition. He recalled that such sessions are very important and each member should be given a chance to express his opinion to make part of the debate.

The Minister suggested that if the speaker is not available in any case, the deputy speaker should start proceedings as per the announced schedule it would be beneficial to the public interest. Citing an example of the House of Commons, he said “that uses to be house in order in presence of a single member of the house and the speaker.” MNA Ghulam Mustafa Shah suggested that an advisory should be issued in this regard and that it would also be helpful to convince opposition members to avoid frequent highlighting the lack of quorum as to ensure the smooth functioning of the house.

Opposition member and PTI dissident Noor Alam Khan decried the non-seriousness of the treasury in the house, saying that “even finance Minister and Minister of state are not present”, how the debate could be commenced in this situation, he was surprised. “If Ministers would not bother to hear the suggestions of the members in these important days then what they will do later on to pay heed towards members’ input,” he asked.

MNA Sabir Hussain endorsed the aforementioned raized suggestions and said that “if it would be ensured then it would be very useful for all of us.” After hearing the members’ remarks, the Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf ensured to take into consideration the highlighted points. MNA Salahuddin recalled that the country is passing through very difficult economic circumstances and that is not the result of a few years. “Last government particularly damaged the country by their futile policies,” he criticized adding that they first kept denying to approach the IMF and ultimately did so but with a lot of delay which dented the country’s economy badly. “They not only approached the IMF but also accepted all conditions of this organization. But delayed decisions increased circular debt in the country,” he recalled, adding that actually they don’t have appropriate decision making power. The MNA Mian Javaid Latif maintained that to make some rational policies required some significant time. He claimed that his party rescued the country from collapse by paying political price as, he added, the party intentionally dared to rein country when it had been totally shattered economically. The NA began a general debate on the federal budget presented by the coalition government last week with an unimpressive speech by Leader of the Opposition and PTI dissident Raja Riaz Ahmed as he delivered his speech to an almost empty house, visibly lacking quorum and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had also skipped the sitting, despite being present in Parliament House, where he met Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, who had left the house after handing over chairing duties to his deputy Zahid Durrani.