ISLAMABAD: Following a long and noisy debate on the proposed Finance Bill for the fiscal year 2020-2021 on Monday, the National Assembly gave its nod to the federal budget which the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) government has been touting as “tax-free”.
160 MPs voted in favour of the bill while 119 opposed it.
The government had unveiled a coronavirus-influenced Rs7.13 trillion “tax-free” budget for the next fiscal year in a special session of the House held on June 13. While reading the budget document, Minister for Industries Hammad Azhar had emphasised that no new tax was being introduced in this budget.
Prime Minister Imran Khan joined the session halfway as the speaker listed each clause and amendment. During the voting, a large number of members in the treasury benches started thumping their desks and chanting slogans in favor of the premier.
Minister for Planning and Development Asad Umar, while taking to Twitter after the passing of the bill, said: “Tall claims made by the opposition and some sensationalist analysis by the media over the last few days and the result is that the 29-vote majority, through which last year’s budget was passed, has increased to 41 votes.”
![]()
Asad Umar✔@Asad_Umar
پچھلے کئی دن سے اپوزیشن کی کیے جانے والے بلند دعوے، کچھ میڈیا کےسنسنی خیز تجزیے اور نتیجہ یہ نکلا کے پچھلے سال کے بجٹ کی حکومت کی 29 ووٹ کی اکثریت اس سال بڑھ کر 41 ہو گئی. تمام ساتھیوں اور خصوصی طور پر تحریک انصاف کے ورکرز کو مبارک.
Before the vote, speaking on the floor of the House, Azhar said that Monday’s session was meant to move amendments to the finance bill and pass it, yet the opposition was resorting to personal attacks.
He accused the opposition of shouting na manzoor (unacceptable) even before the budget was presented in the parliament.
“I expected there would be concrete arguments [today] but the opposition is making personal attacks — this is the level of their seriousness,” said Azhar.
The main opposition parties rounded on the government in general and Prime Minister Imran Khan in particular for its handling of the Covid-19 pandemic among other things.
Addressing the House, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairperson Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari said that prime minister has “only two options — either ask forgiveness from the public and the assembly for destroying the economy and putting peoples’ lives in danger or resign and let someone responsible take charge”.
Former defense minister and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Khawaja Asif said that the PTI government needed to be stopped from causing further damage. “They have increased the petrol price to Rs100 per litre. This will not only have an effect on petrol but they will now drop bombs on gas and electricity as well,” he said.
“This is because they have made commitments with liquidators to revise these tariffs. The budget is an interim document.”
Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal’s (MMA) MP Maulana Asad Mehmood and PTI MP Ali Amin Gandapur exchanged hot words over each other’s “characters”. Digressing from the budget, Mehmood also criticised the government’s performance on other fronts, including raising the plight of Kashmiris.
