By Ajmal Khan Yousafzai
ISLAMABAD: The members of opposition parties on Friday have staged a protest in front of National Assembly (NA) Speaker Asad Qaiser’s rostrum during an important session in the Parliament.
The heated debate arose on the issue of food inflation and hike in electricity and gas prices. Speaking on the motion that this house may discuss the aforementioned prices, MNA Qaiser Ahmed Sheikh said the people had voted the parliamentarians to discuss and redress their issues.
He said the people had a lot of expectations from the incumbent government, adding the opposition leaders Shehbaz Sharif and Bilawal Bhutto had offered the government a charter of economy to resolve these issues.
He maintained the issues could only be resolved through joint and collective efforts and added that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government came to power with the slogan of rooting out corruption and controlling inflation. He passionately called for focusing on these specific issues. Taking part in the discussion, Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leader Raja Pervaiz Ashraf said that inflation was the real issue for common people. He agreed that the PTI had contested the general elections on the major issues of elimination of corruption, inflation and unemployment, adding that the government should now move forward.
He called for taking drastic measures to redress these issues for ensuring proper relief to people.
Addressing the lower house, Federal Minister for Power, Petroleum and Natural Resources Omar Ayub Khan said that former governments had signed expensive agreements, due to which, Pakistan is facing challenges.
Energy Minister Omer Ayub Khan said the present government was clearing the liabilities of the previous regimes in the power sector, which had been incurring huge losses to the national exchequer.
Taking part in the debate in the National Assembly regarding inflation, he said that the previous government had somehow planted “landmines” in the foundation of the economy. He informed that the annual capacity payment to the Independent Power Producers (IPPs) was Rs185 billion in 2013, Rs468 billion in 2018 and Rs860 billion in 2020, and it would surpass Rs1,455 billion in 2023. He raised a question as to why the common people were put at stake.
He maintained that corrupt practices had been detected in every single contract signed by the previous government, adding that the present government had now eliminated corrupt practices in contracts.
The minister pointed out that there were only two weeks of foreign exchange reserve by the end of PML-N tenure, adding when the PPP completed its term, there were two months of forex reserves.
He further said that exports declined during past regimes, and had only now started to show an upward trend, thanks to the vibrant policies of the present government.
He said that the government was pursuing pro-business policies and these were being appreciated by the business community. He maintained the large scale manufacturing was now witnessing a growth of 14.50 per cent.
The minister lamented the previous government allowed the setting up of expensive power plants, ignoring indigenous resources of energy. He stressed the present government was focusing on utilising the potential of renewable energy to produce inexpensive electricity. He said the agreement signed with the IPPs would help save Rs800 billion.
Speaking on the occasion, Federal Minister for Planning, Development & Special Initiatives Asad Umar, appreciating NA speaker for conducting the session as amicably as possible, adding that the opposition should avoid following a double standard. Previously in the session, NA Speaker Qaisar directed the government to lay all ordinances promulgated after the prorogation of the last session in the house on Monday. He gave the direction after Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) lawmaker Shahid Khaqan Abbasi raised the point in the house.
Earlier, speaking on a point of order, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, while citing rules 170, said the government should lay all ordinances promulgated in absence of the session in the house. He pointed out that no ordinance was on today agenda which was a violation of rule 170. Responding to the point, Advisor to the PM on Parliamentary Affairs Dr Babar Awan said that the ordinance would be laid during the current session.
It is pertinent to mention that the National Assembly began its session by offering fateha for the departed souls of PML-N Senator Mushahidullah Khan, legendary mountaineer Ali Sadpara and the security personnel martyred in recent acts of terrorism. The annual reports of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on the status of Pakistan’s economy for the years 2019-20 and 2020-21 were presented before the assembly. The fiscal and debt policy statement for the year 2021 was also laid before the house. The documents were presented by Parliamentary Secretary for Finance Zain Qureshi.
