ISLAMABAD: The parliamentarians from the opposition benches criticized the government on Saturday for what they call allocation of unnecessary funds for various purposes under head of Charged Expenditure for fiscal year 2016-17.
Participating in the debate on Charged Expenditures in the National Assembly, Shazia Marri of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) criticized the government for allocating unnecessary funds for the presidency in various heads. She criticized the government for continuous negligence towards foreign policy saying that Pakistan was being isolated and it has been losing relations even with brotherly countries. She urged the finance minister to provide relief in real sense to the poor people of the country instead of just claiming that the budget has been pro-poor.
Awami Muslim League Chief Sheikh Rashid said that the government has fixed excessive funds for Presidency. He supported that the members of the parliament should be given honourable salaries adding that in the country where the television anchors are paid about Rs four million salary, why there should be no raise in the salaries of parliamentarians. He urged the government to take notice of the plight of pensioners and take measures to pay them pensions at doorsteps. Sher Akbar Khan of Jama’at-e-Islami urged the government to devise policies that may help get rid of the external debt and stressed the need for taking foreign affairs seriously.
Dr Fouzia Hameed of Mutahidda Qaumi Movement (MQM) stressed the need for holding population census, arguing that “making a balanced budget could not be possible unless we know how much population the country is having.” Chaudhry Sarwar of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) while participating in the budget said that although the government announced raise in the salaries of government pensioners, however such measure was taken for the private pensioners. He also expressed hope that China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) would be accomplished, but lamented that Gilgit-Baltistan, which is the ‘gateway’ of the project, is being ignored. He said that 42 sites have been identified in Gilgit-Baltistan where hydel power could be generated and urged the government to launch such projects in the area under CPEC.
