Senate passes SBP Bill with razor-thin margin amid mayhem

ISLAMABAD, January 28: The government on Friday succeeded in clearing one of the major hurdles to revive a $6 billion International Monetary Fund (IMF) package, as the Senate approved the State Bank of Pakistan (Amendment) Bill with a razor-thin majority amid pandemonium by the opposition in the house.
Members of the opposition parties kept chanting slogans, tore copies of the bill and even laid siege to Chairman Sanjrani’s dais to register their protest, demanding Prime Minister Imran Khan’s resignation.
The Senate passed the SBP (Amendment) Bill with a majority of only one vote, as 44 votes were cast in favour of the bill and 43 against it. Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani’s decisive vote proved a catalyst for the government side who voted in favour of the bill and the PTI government managed to clinch victory.
Earlier, Minister for Finance Shaukat Tarin tabled the bill after dilly-dallying for a while as the numerical strength required for the passage of the bill was not there, giving an opportunity to the opposition to taunt the treasury benches.
“It is not my duty to present the bill, Shaukat Tarin should come back in the session,” Senate Chairperson Sanjrani said. During the session, the opposition members raised slogans against the government and called for a debate on the bill in the house.
Taking advantage of the situation, Senator Sherry Rehman of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) congratulated the opposition, saying the very fact that the government was taking time to table the bill signalled its defeat. “The government  should be ashamed of itself; it should resign forthwith. How shameful it is that it has failed to get a single bill passed from the house,” she said it aloud.
Regretting that never ever in his life had he seen such disrespect being shown towards the Senate, another PPP Senator Farooq H Naek requested Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani to suspend the session.
Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl accused the government of compromising on the country’s economy for the sake of the IMF.
The National Assembly has already passed the bill during its session held a few weeks back. The bill weakens the Finance Ministry’s control on the SBP and also clears one of the major hurdles to revive a $6 billion International Monetary Fund package. The Senate session was later prolonged until (Monday, January 31).
He was of the opinion that the SBP bill could not be part of the agenda for a period of one month.
Later, it came to light that Awami National Party (ANP) Senator Umar Farooq Kasi had left the Senate hall prior to the voting on the SBP Amendment Bill, thus dealing a decisive blow to the opposition’s bid to foil passage of the bill.
Other opposition leaders namely Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani, Nuzhat Sadiq, Senator Shafiq Tarin and Senator Talha Mehmood were also absent.
The much-talked-about ‘Dilawar Khan Group’ voted in favour of the government-sponsored bill. The government members and its allies in the National Assembly and Senate voted in favour of the bill. Another bill titled “SBP Amendment Act 2021” is pending with the government and it is still unknown when the government will present it before the Parliament. Earlier, the SBP Amendment Bill was included in the eight-point agenda of the Senate meeting, which was issued late Thursday night, at the eleventh hour. The SBP bill was related to the autonomy of the State Bank and the IMF conditions. Minister for Information and Broadcasting Fawad Chaudhry, however, called this “another success” for the PTI government in a tweet to celebrate the passing of the bill. -TLTP