ISLAMABAD: Minister for Law and Justice Azam Nazeer Tarar on Friday informed the Senate that Pakistan is a responsible state and no one can dare to cast ill eyes on atomic and other assets of the country, the official news agency reported.
Speaking in the Senate in response to points raised by Senator Mushtaq Ahmed, the minister said that no member of the federal cabinet was taking salaries and very minimum perks were being given to them. Only 1800CC car and petrol at par with federal secretary was being given to them.
Earlier resuming debate on the budget, Senator Mushtaq Ahmed said that International Monterey Fund (IMF) wanted to default Pakistan and was creating hurdles in disbursement of the $1 billion tranche. “Such tactics were being adopted to snatch atomic bomb facility of Pakistan,” he added.
He suggested that elimination of elite and protocol culture besides curbing various ‘mafias’ were mandatory to address the key challenges to the national economy.
He criticised the government for not giving any concrete plan for debt retiring, controlling inflation, civil and police reforms. He said that the national debt has surged to a record Rs60,000 billion and the budget lacked any concrete plan to address this grave issue. He demanded that a commission should be formed to investigate who had borrowed these hefty loans and where it had been spent.
He said inflation has also touched 38 percent which was even more than Sri Lanka. There was no programme to overpower circular debt which was a result of mismanagement and poor governance, he added.
He claimed that there was also a dire need of reforms in FBR as there was leakage of Rs1,000 billion in it.
He said that in the new merged districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, no development was carried out and no facility was extended to these areas. Tax exemption should be given to Malakand and erstwhile Fata for next 10 years instead of one year, he said.
Rana Maqbool of PMLN said the government has given a balanced budget despite many challenges. He said many incentives were given to the agriculture and IT sectors besides for youth. He said significant increase in pension and salary of the employees has been announced in the budget which would provide prompt relief to the people.
He said an amendment should also be brought in the house so its recommendation could be binding to incorporate in the money bill.
