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All coalition parties in the government have agreed to debate defense
budget in the parliament. Syed Naveed Qamar Federal Minister for
Privatisation, Investment, Ports, Shipping, Industries & Production stated
while delivering keynote address on, ‘How to make Parliamentary Budget
Effective?’ in a joint workshop of Pakistani and Afghan Parliamentarians held
under the auspices of Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development &
Transparency (PILDAT) here today.
Syed Naveed Qamar said that prominent changes would occur during the
presentation of budget by the passage of time. The budget making process is
primarilary is the job of National Assembly but presently very short period
was given to debate the expenditure whereas in India the budget was presented
early in February and passed provisionally and they discuss it in the Standing
Committees and finally pass it in June, he stated.
Elucidating the salient features of the passage of budget through parliament
the Minister said that presently the budgets of Supreme Court, President
House, National Assembly and Senate were not debated in order to save these
institutions.
He added that Pakistan’s all policies come from British Houses and Indian
Parliament and our budgetary process was different from Afghanistan, however,
there was a lot of room for improvement in the process.
Earlier, Mr. Ishaq Dar Federal Minister for Finance said that the Public
Accounts Committee should focus on recently concluded years, which would be
very productive. We were fighting for good governance and not for the
government and we needed to set all our differences within the Parliament, he
added.
The Chairman of the session Dr. Najma Heptulla, Member Rajiya Sabha, India,
Former Deputy Chairperson Rajiya Sabha and foremer President
Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) lauded the strong views for strengthening the
democracy in Pakistan. PPPP leader Mr. Farhatullah Babar and other speakers
also spoke on this occasion. The session was followed by a Q & A session.