Pakistan: Govt failed to present proper policy on terrorism

DAILY TIMES

Criticising the federal budget for 2013-14, opposition senators on Sunday said the government had failed to present any proper policy on handling terrorism, which had badly affected Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan and Karachi. Both the treasury and opposition senators condemned Saturday’s incidents in which students and a hospital were targeted. They said that the attack on Quaid-e-Azam Residency in Ziarat was a great national loss and no leniency should be shown to militants involved in such heinous activities. In this regard, the senators passed a unanimous resolution against the attack on Bolan Medical Complex that resulted in the killing of female students, nurses and others. The resolution was moved by Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) lawmaker Senator Nuzhat Sadiq and was adopted by the House unanimously. “We condemn the terrorist attacks and express sympathy with the bereaved families, and pray for [eternal peace of] the departure sole,” she said, adding that the entire nation, especially women, stood by the bereaved families. PPP Senator Raza Rabbani claimed that the acts were a conspiracy to fail the new democratic set-up, and demanded that the interior minister brief the House on the incidents. Senators from FATA regretted that a meagre allocation was made in the budget for the development of the Federal Administered Tribal Areas, where local were suffering greatly due to the ongoing war on terror. Senator Abbas Khan Afridi said that Rs 18 billion allocated for the region in the budget was not sufficient for the rehabilitation of the affected areas. He said that the people of FATA were still being compelled to migrate from their areas due to the ongoing war on terror. He said that locals had been made internally displaced persons (IDPs), and that their rehabilitation required huge funding. “FATA is the focal point during elections in the US and Pakistan, but when the time of allocation comes, it is usually neglected,” he regretted. He demanded that the government should provide $1 billion, which it had received from the US under the head of coalition support fund (CSF), and that the money should be spent on the development of FATA. Another FATA senator, Hidayatullah, said that militants had destroyed all educational institutions in the area, and the people were now compelled to live in camps. He regretted that the government had also announced to withdraw incentives given to the areas, which would add to the miseries of the masses. The government should set up special industrial zones in FATA and earmark an additional amount of Rs 8 billion for rebuilding school buildings in the areas, he said. Saeedul Hasan said that no relief had been given to the poor in the budget, and that increasing the GST would overburden the middle and poor classes. He said that the previous government had also proposed to increase the GST, but the decision was taken back on the demand of then opposition, the PML-N. He said that the people of FATA had rendered supreme sacrifices and it would be totally unjustified to withdraw relief given to them. In the same breath, he lauded the government for making hefty allocations for development projects and said that it would help create economic stability in the country. PPP legislator Farhatullah Babar claimed that there was no relief for the poor in the budget, and it was merely a conventional statement. “It is the prime responsibility of the political leadership to take steps and devise framework that generated more and more revenue,” he said. He praised the government for its resolve to end circular debt within 60 days and the allocation of Rs 225 billion to cope with the energy crisis. However, he said that the circular debt would emerge again, as there was a need for structural changes in the system. He also lauded the government for abolishing secret and discretionary funds of the PM, ministers and state ministers, but said that it would affect the credibility of several organisations. The PML-N’s Senator Rafiq Rajwana said the government had presented the budget in difficult conditions, as the coffers were empty. He said the Supreme Court had to take suo motu actions because of the wrong decisions of the previous government, which created a difficult financial situation for the poor. The PPP’s Senator Saeed Ghani said the budget was not pro-people, as there was no mention of farmers and labourers in the budget. Ghani said it was strange that in the budget speech of the finance minister, there was no mention of any increase in the salaries of eight million employees who are bread earners of their families. He expressed disappointment that no measures had been taken in the budget to increase direct taxes or widen the tax net. Senator Muhammad Hamza said that around 60 percent of the population depended on agriculture, and ignoring the important sector was detrimental to the economy. He termed the country’s tax system “far from ideal” and said that with the imposition of tax on agriculture, millions of people could be brought into the tax net.