Lawmakers for increase in govt employees’ salaries by 10-20 per cent

ISLAMABAD, Jun 22 (APP): Legislators from treasury and opposition benches in National Assembly on Tuesday recommended the federal government to increase the salaries of government employees from 10 to 20 per cent in the budget for fiscal year 2021-22.

Opening debate on budget, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) lawmaker, Rahat Amanullah Bhatti stressed the lawmakers to personally lead people welfare projects as this was our responsibility and people has a lot of expectation in our constituencies.

He said that we parliamentarians always criticize the government departments but this was also our responsibility to initiate public welfare programs.

Amanullah Bhatti briefed the House regarding a welfare project he initiated for the provision of clean drinking water in his constituency NA-119, Sheikupura-I.
He said that under the project clean drinking water was made available in 135 villages so far.

Taking part in budget debate, Mutahida Majlis Amal (MMA) MNA Maulana Jamal ud Din demanded an allocation of funds for the victims of landmines in South Waziristan tribal district Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

He said that more employment opportunities should be created for the youth of merged areas of erstwhile FATA, adding that government had also promised induction of 20,000 police personal in merged areas. He said that instead of fulfilling promise, the Community Health Centers closed in South Waziristan.

He also demanded that government allocate special financial package for the welfare of Waziristan people.

He said that the federal government has also announced construction of 100 kilometer roads projects in his constituency but no work yet started on the projects.

MNA Jamal ud Din proposed salaries of government employees should be increased by 20 per cent.

Taking part in debate, Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) MNA Ahsan Iqbal said that the government must go for realistic and achievable targets for sustainable development in the country.

He also suggested the government to increase the salaries of employees by 20 per cent. He also proposed to increase higher education budget upto ten billion as compared to previous allocations. He also proposed for continuing the current project of police hospital in Islamabad.

PTI MNA Major Tahir Saddique, taking part in debate, said that Attock District was ignored in the federal budget allocations. He demanded that government should allocate funds for his constituency.

He also proposed to enhance the allocation for the agriculture sector and announce Kissan package for the farmer’s community to provide them a relief.

He demanded that action should be taken against the lawmakers who used non-parliamentary language during previous sessions.

He said that treasury and opposition lawmakers were making lengthy speeches but there was need of some practical work for the welfare of the poor people.

Participating in the debate, Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) MNA Shazia Atta Marri urged Speaker National Assembly Asad Qaiser to issue production order of the arrested members, so that they can attend the budget session.

Criticizing budget, she said, that the government should take more measures for the poor segment of the society and agriculture sector.

The legislator said that country needed agriculture development for achieving the national food security, adding that National Finance Commission Award (NFC) should be implemented in latter and spirit.

She said the government should increase the employees up to 20 percent as 10 percent not enough in the current inflation ratio in the country.

Shazia Marri said the government should take concrete measures to control load-shedding across the country without any discrimination.

Participating in the budget debate, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, MNA Rao Muhammad Ajmal Khan urged the government and opposition benches to join hands for further improving agriculture sector in the country.

He said the government should enhance subsidy for the farmers community, adding that many other countries were offering maximum subsidy.

Taking part in the budget debate, MNA Fazal Hussain called for unity among the treasury and opposition benches to resolve the problems being faced by common man. He further stated that reforms were need of the hour in all the institutions.

Pakistan Peoples Party Parliamentarians (PPPP) MNA, Syed Mustafa Mahmud appreciated the government for lowering the export tariff on electric vehicles for providing vehicles to the people on economic rates.

He said the foreign policy was interlinked with the domestic policy of the country and urged for the implementation of National Action Plan (NAP) in latter and spirit.

Participating in the debate, PTI MNA Sana Ullah Masti Khel praised the government for presenting pro-poor and people friendly budget under the leadership of Prime Minister Imran Khan. He said that country was facing several challenges including Covid-19 pandemic and twins deficit of trade and financial sides.

He said that government has initiated number of programmes for the welfare of people in the country including Ehsaas Programme, Naya Pakistan Housing Programme and Kamyab Jawaan Programme.

Sana Ullah said the government has announced interest free loans for the farmers which would help them stand their feet to promote agriculture sector.

He thanked Chief Minister Punjab Usman Buzdar and Prime Minister Imran Khan for announcing Thal University which would provide an opportunity to local students to get higher education in own division.

PTI lawmaker said that first time in the history Prime Minister Imran Khan had given tough time to the mafia of sugar and wheat, while the previous governments of PPP and PML-N always backed these mafias.

Muttahida Majis-e-Amal Pakistan (MMAP) Lawmaker Maulana Muhammad Anwar appreciated the paramedical staff across the country for rendering valuable services during Covid-19 crisis.

He urged the government to provide clean drinking water for the people of his constituency and also improve road infrastructure in District Lakki Marwat, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Participating in the debate, PTI legislator said that Nafeesa Inyatullah Khattak said that in upcoming budget the government has increased the Public Sector Development Program (PSDP) from Rs 650 billion to Rs 900 billion for sustainable growth in the country.

She said that “we are promoting ‘Knowledge Economy’ for introducing innovations in different sector of economy.”

Nafeesa Khattak said that the government has initiated the huge financial cover through the ‘Ehsaas Programme’ for low income people in the country.

She said that the government has also allocated more funds for the education and health sectors for investment in these two prime sectors.

The lawmaker said that there was need to bring reforms in Federal Investigation Agency (FIA). She said more professional should be hired in FIA to efficiently prevent money laundering adding that in future “We have to get rid from Financial Action Task Force.

Taking part in debate, PML-N MNA, Chaudhry Iftikhar Nazir stressed for joint efforts to bring reforms in agriculture sector.

He said the government and opposition should shun the politics of blames and work for the betterment of downtrodden segment of the society.

Participating in the debate, PTI legislator, Saif ur Rehman said that the present government had presented a balance budget which would benefit all the sectors including agriculture, poverty, trade and business.

He criticized PPP Sindh government for failing to provide basic facilities to the people of the province.

.:Taking part in the debate, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) MNA Agha Rafi Ullah proposed pre-budget consultation in the house committees to obtain the opinion of all stakeholders, including the industrialist and business community.

He suggested more industrial growth and promotion of small and medium entrepreneurs (SMEs) for providing employment opportunities to the youth in the country.

He proposed to grant more allocation for the education and health sectors for uplifting the standard of life of remote regions of the country.

He stressed the need to assign more resources for Sindh for sustainable development in the province.

PTI MNA Engr Usman Khan Tarakai proposed the positive debate in house on the coming budget for enhancing productivity to resolve the masses’ issues.

“We have inherited the weak economic situation and the government has already achieved economic stability for increasing the gross domestic product growth in the country. Now this is the time to provide relief to the people and allocate more resources in the coming budget 2021-22 for commoners,” he added.

He said the government has presented a balanced budget and granted relief measures for the low income people, and also allocated more resources for remote regions of the country.

PML- N MNA, Ali Gohar Khan stressed for curtailing the inflation and decreasing the food price to provide relief to the commoners.

He said there should be a regulation mechanism to prevent the sugar and wheat cartels and control the price of these commodities in the market.

He criticized the political victimization and proposed for political consensus among all the political forces for strengthening the democratic institutions in the country.

PTI MNA Zulfiqar dullah appreciated the balance budget presented by the government for the low income people, farmers and for the promotion of SMEs.

He said our exports increased by 14 percent in the last 11 months, which decreased our trade difficult for economic development in the country.

He said the government should engage overseas to increase the country’s remittances and exports.

He said industries must be established according to the specialization of the relevant industrial regions for bringing sustainable economic growth in the country.

He proposed to establish agriculture chambers and promote research in the agri-sector to promote innovations in the sector.

He said the country’s revenue collection have to enhance up to its real potential of worth Rs8,000 billion through the institutional reforms and automation in the Federal Board of Revenue.

He paid gratitude to Prime Minister Imran Khan for announcing a hospital, Chakwal University and 500 KV grid station in Chakwal district.

PPP’s Naz Baloch stressed the need for providing education, health and employment opportunities to the people.

Viewing on coming budget 2021-22, she said there was a need to reduce the inflation ratio for lowering the food prices in the country.

The government should allocate more resources for children’s and mother health and mortality to enhance life expectancy in the country, she said.

Naz said the provincial government of PPP had offered huge health, education and infrastructural facilities in the province for providing relief to the people.

PTI MNA Noor Alam Khan said that Peshawar city should be included in China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) for the welfare of the people of the area.

He said that the government should take concrete measures to control load-shedding in the country and provide electricity at cheaper rates to the consumers. He said that accountability should be made across the board.

Abid Hussain Bhayo of PPPP condemned the use of indecent language at start of the current budget session, which extremely disturbed the environment in the Parliament House, urging the lawmakers to promote democratic norms and end the blame game.

He asked the government to necessary measures to bring down the inflation so that the common man could get the essential edibles at reasonable price.

Malik Karamat Ali Khokhar of PTI termed the budget people-friendly and growth-oriented, and said it would help flourish the agriculture sector and improve living standard of the downtrodden segments of the society.

He said the previous government did nothing for welfare of the general public, except taking cosmetic measures to hoodwink the masses.

He expressed confidence that the country would progress under the dynamic leadership of Prime Minister Imran Khan, adding the PTI government believed in serving the common man and mitigate their sufferings for which a number of initiatives were in place.

Mehnaz Akber Aziz of PML-N was of the view that the budget debate lacked the discussion on children’s education and skill development of youth, adding no new initiative in the education sector had been taken.

She said the number of child beggars was increasing at cities’ roads and stressed the need for controlling by ensuring maximum enrollment of children in schools.

Nasir Khan Musazai of PTI congratulated Prime Minister Imran Khan and his economic team for presenting the best budget, which would help further increase the GDP rate and strengthen the national economy.

He regretted that the previous governments had failed to introduce growth-oriented policies that led to extreme financial crisis and destruction of several departments. Besides, he said, the past regimes signed expensive agreements in the energy sector, creating difficulties for the industrial units due to increased cost of production.

He suggested reformation of the Peshawar Electric Supply Company for tackling the power load-shedding there.

Zulfiqar Bachani of PPPP said the government should give more incentives and subsidies to the agriculture sector so that the country true potential in this area could be exploited.
He disagreed with the government’s view point on the electoral reforms, and stressed the need for collective efforts to ensure transparency in future elections.

Iqbal Muhammad Ali Khan of Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQMP) said the Sindh government must share the utilization of the funds it received under the National Finance Commission (NFC) award.

He said the province lacked the required basic facilities including health even after the Sindh government had so far received around Rs23,000 billion under the NFC.

He appreciated the government for presenting such a pro-public budget despite financial constraints and economic slowdown caused by coronavirus pandemic.

The lawmaker suggested that there should be sufficient increase in salaries of government employees as the proposal of 10 per cent raise was ‘insufficient’ in the prevailing inflation.

Taking part in the budget debate Dr Malik Mukhtar Ahmad of PML-N alleged that the government had failed to devise a concrete policy to provide relief to the masses.
Malik Anwar Taj appreciated the government team for presenting best budget for the next fiscal year.

He said the whole business community and others were also appreciating the budget.
He said record funds were allocated for development projects and other sectors.

He lauded the government for setting up grid station in his constituency.

Shamim Ara Panhwar of PPPP said no relief was given in the budget for the poor people. She alleged that fudge figures were presented in the budget.

She claimed that the government steps would cause further inflation in the country.
She said the PPPP government gave provincial autonomy through 18th constitutional amendment.

Alamgir Khan of PTI said the government announced historical budget in the country’s history. Record tax exemptions were given to various sectors including automobile, agriculture etc, he added.

However, he called for major reforms in departments to provide more relief to the masses.
Sheikh Fayyaz Ud Din of PML-N said prices of essential commodities had increased manifold which needed to be reduced.

Aftab Jahangir of PTI said that all economists and businessmen termed the budget balanced and pro-people in the current scenario.

He said the provincial did nothing in his constituency NA-252 (Karachi) for the past 30 years.

He demanded that development funds should be given to the elected representative so they could carry out development works in their constituencies.

Afreen Khan of MMAP while taking part in the debate said no development funds were given to our constituencies.

He said that like other areas, development funds should also be given to our constituencies so our areas could also be brought at par with other developed areas of the country.

Attaullah of PTI appreciated the Prime Minister for giving balanced budget for next fiscal year. The PPPP provincial government in Sindh did nothing for the welfare and uplifts of the various areas in Karachi, he added.

He lauded the PM for giving funds to the elected representatives for provision of missing facilities in their constituencies.

He invited the media to visit their constituencies in Karachi and witnessed development work carried out by them.

Abdul Qadir Mandokhel of PPPP demanded of the government to fulfill its promises made with masses before general elections.

Shunila Ruth of PTI said the government inherited worse economy and record current account deficit. However, despite COVID-19 pandemic, the government achieved 4 per cent GDP growth and not only overcome current account deficit but also turned it into surplus, she added.

She said the budget would further enhance the economic growth in the country. Incentives were given to all segments of the society, she added.

She said Rs 900 billion was allocated for development work in the budget for the country which would bring progress and prosperity.

Shaza Fatima Khawaja of PML-N said the country’s GDP was 5.6 per cent while development budget was over Rs 1000 billion during PML-N regime.

She said the past PML-N government brought down the inflation in single digit.

She alleged the government failed to control the inflation and address the peoples’ problems.

Taking part in debate, MNA Nafeesa Inayatullah Khan Khattak called for the establishment of special cyber courts to look after the cyber-crime cases.

MNA Chaudhry Iftikhar Nazir urged the government to focus on providing special relief to the farmers.

MNA Ch. Faqir Ahmed condemned the ruckus in the House during the sittings after presentation of the budget. He demanded the government to pay heed towards pro-poor policies and take steps for relief to them.

He demanded the government to take into confidence the representatives of the people about policies of the government.

He said that infant mortality rate is high in the country and PTI lawmaker Mian Muhammad Shafiq alleged the previous governments to be responsible for economic crisis and appreciated the leadership of Imran Khan who steered country out these challenges.