ISLAMABAD, June 7: The National Assembly resumed its session in Islamabad on Tuesday with Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq in the chair.
At the outset, Jamshed Dasti pointed out lack of quorum and the chair suspended the proceedings till the completion of quorum.
Continuing his speech, Dr Farooq Sattar termed the budget as traditional one. He said there should be some revolutionary steps in the budget to address the problems being faced by poor. He demanded withdrawal of taxes imposed on stationary and Continued on page 6
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dairy products especially on milk. He pointed out that there is no progressive tax proposed in the budget for taking the country forward.
He said salary of government employees should be increased by 20 percent. Similarly, there should be considerable increase in retired employees pension and minimum wage should be fixed at 20 thousand rupees per month. He said National Action Plan’s ownership should be transferred to the people. He demanded more allocations of more funds for development of infrastructure in Karachi. A separate package should be given for under-developed parts of the country.
Taking part in the debate, Asad Umar said unemployment and debts have increased during the last three years of the present government. He said investment has also decreased during this period. He pointed out that Pakistan Steel Mills is closed for the last eight months and stressed the need for its revival. He said taxes should be reduced on electricity and petroleum products to give relief to the people. He said government should launch new housing schemes for government employees to overcome housing shortage. He demanded increase in pension of government employees. He said that China-Pakistan Economic Corridor is a good project and maximum benefit should be taken from it for the country.
In his speech, Shaikh Rashid Ahmad said 4.71 percent GDP growth rate mentioned in the budget documents is not real one. He pointed out that only three hundred megawatt additional electricity has been added to the national grid in the last three years. He stressed the need for completing mother and child Hospital in Rawalpindi. He also stressed for speeding up the process of probe into Panama Papers issue.
Awais Ahmad Khan Leghari praised the economic performance of the government. He said revenue collection has increased, fiscal deficit decreased and exchange rate has been stabilized due to steps taken by the government. He pointed out that that cost of production will be decreased as a result of decrease in prices of fertilizers and concession in electricity rate for farmers. He said farmers were encouraged with relief given to them in the budget. He said China-Pakistan Economic Corridor is a game changer project and it should not be politicized.-Sabah
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