Treasury, Opp trade 'friendly fire' in NA

ISLAMABAD-The treasury and the opposition benches entered a 'friendly fire during the National Assembly session to debate the federal budget 2009-10 here on Wednesday.
Direct verbal attacks took place across the divide between the leading parties, PPP and PML-N. The ruling PPP, however, had no answer to silence the opposition that continued with its criticism of the Carbon Tax.
Apart from opposition members, the coalition partners also raised dissenting voices on a number of proposals, clauses and allocations in the budget document for the next fiscal. Responding to a point raised by Ghaus Bux Mehr of PML-Q in his speech, Prime Minister, Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani told the House that development of Gwadar port was the number one priority of his government.
We have already made this port operational and imported fertilizer for the agriculture was operated through this port, the Prime Minister remarked.
He assured the House that the pledged financial assistance and funds from Friends of Democratic Pakistan, priority would be given to Balochistan in the utilization of funds.
Sardar Ayaz Sadiq, PML-N member started his speech with comparing two Shaukats, as Shukat the first, former prime minister and now Shaukat the second, the incumbent Adviser on Finance. I see this combination as the continuation of former regime, he commented.
He also lambasted the newly introduced Carbon Tax, saying he did not understand its levy on petroleum products. He also asked for probe into transferring of railway lands and locomotives purchased from China.
Taking part in the budget debate, Ch Pervaiz Elahi, Parliamentary Leader of PML-Q, termed the federal budget for next fiscal 2009-10 as a formality, as he did not see any vision and direction of the government in it.
The incumbent regime has missed all the targets set for the outgoing fiscal year 2008-09 and the fiscal targets announced in this budget may also face the same fate in the next year, he projected.
The PML-Q leader highlighted that the poverty and inflation were on rise but the government had no plan to cope with this situation.
He also came hard on his former party colleague and sitting Minister of State for Finance, Hina Rabbani Khar, saying she criticized the budget and economic policies of previous government of PML-Q of which she was also part of the then cabinet. I think when she will join future government of another party then she will criticise the policies of the sitting government, he pointed out.
Replying to the opposition criticism on the budget, Federal Minister for Planning and Development Makhdoom Shahabuddin reminded that the government had taken sufficient measures to contain poverty to a certain level. Due to the governments timely steps, inflation and poverty ratio have fallen down, he added.
He rejected the impression that the budgetary allocations for IDPs were not sufficient saying they were rather a starter and more funds would be provided as needed.
Rana Tanvir Hussain of PML-N, while taking part in the debate, objected to the governments imposition of Carbon Tax. The government should levy tax but should spend on the development and IDPs, he suggested.
Munir Khan Orakzai, Parliamentary leader of FATA MNAs slated PPP, the leading ruling partner for ignoring its allies in the budget making exercise. We were not consulted in the budget making and even the promise made by President Asif Zardari was not kept of giving 100 per cent raise in FATA budget, he pointed out. The government increased the FATA budget by just 18 per cent, which is contrary to the government assurances to raise it from Rs 8.5 billion to Rs 17 billion with additional Rs 2.5 billion as promised by the President but the budget disappointed us. The government is receiving funds in the name of tribal areas but not a penny is being spent on us, he regretted. Abdul Qadir Akhunzada, MQM MNA suggested the government should focus on 4 communities in the budget including farming, business, government employees, and those neither fall in any of the above categories.
Riaz Fatiana in his speech suggested the government should extend house-building loans to the rural areas, where 70 per cent population are living. The government should ask the agriculture bank, (ZTBL) to issue credit cards to the small farmers as per their income to avoid corruption in the process of giving agriculture loans. Speaker Dr Fehmida Mirza asked Minister of State Hina Rabbani to note this proposal, as it is important. With his live and emotional budget speech to defend the government, Abdul Qadir Patel, PPP MNA refreshed the environment in the house, compelling his treasury and coalition colleagues to thump the desks in backing his arguments.
Attacking the opposition speeches, he counted that most of the members from the other side were raising three points, character assassination of President Asif Zardari, demanding of prosecution of former President Musharraf and their self-praising. Minister for Minorities, Shahbaz Bhatti, also defended the government budgetary measures and said the government should be lauded for presenting a balance budget.
Pervez Khan Advocate of ANP criticised the government for failing to finalize the much-awaited NFC award, asking for raise in the share of federating units on the basis of poverty and development and not on the population basis.
Sohail Mansoor, MQM leader demanded that all the four provinces should be given autonomy. He said the decision would make the provinces responsible for making their own budget and creating their personal revenue resources.
He said that just imposing tax was not enough and the government needed to stop the leakages in the tax system. He claimed that it would automatically increase the revenue collection. Engineer Khurram Dastagir in his speech said that the budget had presented nothing new and like past the government again seemed to rely on foreign remittances and foreign aids and loans.
He said that in present budget 2009-10 there is no hope again for the poor class and the dream of prosperity is fading due to incompetent budget makers.
However he praised the Benazir Income Support Programme but added that it was not the answer to the poverty in the country. He said that in all industrial cities of Pakistan, thousands of labourers were unemployed because there was no new industry being established but already existed industry was also shutting down due to lack of electricity.
He also pointed out the agriculture tax issue and said that due to the policies of the government, agriculturists earned around Rs 194 billion following no tax collection from them. He said that in this budget tax base has not been widened.
Ysmeen Rehman showed her resentment over opposition leaders criticism on budget and said that keeping in view the present situation in the country, the budget is not bad. She said that good things in budget should be appreciated.
Whereas Maulvi Asmatullah in his speech also declared the budget rulers friendly and not the common man friendly. He also pointed out that in the budget, Balochistan was neglected and demanded to increase developmental budget for the province. Changez Khan also seconded his demand and said that there should be injustice with Balochistan.
Abdul Ghani Talpur who was the last speaker said that criticism without reason should be avoided. But he said there were some points those should be raised and one of those was NFC award. He said that he requested the government to complete the discussion on the issue in 30 days instead of 90 days.
He also said that he would request the Prime Minister to announce on the floor to close the topic of Kalabagh Dam for ever.