Chairman Senate Farooq Naek declared reports on RGST and flood surcharge ‘approved’ by a voice vote amid shouts of ‘no, not accepted’. — Photo by APP
While the opponents cried foul as the chairman put to voice vote the two reports which had been prepared and signed by their representatives in the Senate Standing Committee on Finance, PML-Q’s senators walked out, saying they could not be part of a process to burden the masses with more taxes.
It was the second walkout of the day as the entire opposition, led by members belonging to the ANP and JUI-F, had left the house at the start of the session in protest against large-scale arrests of the Awami National Party’s workers in Karachi overnight.
It took hardly three minutes for the Senate chairman to rush the two reports through amid chaotic scenes.
The opponents wanted a vote count rather than voice vote on the reports, which contained 15 recommendations from the house to the National Assembly on the RGST and flood surcharge.
Parties opposing the RGST termed it a ‘black day’ for Senate after the chairman rejected their demand for a vote count because, according to them, the voice vote did not produce a clear majority for the ruling coalition.
They claimed that members opposing the recommendations regarding the RGST might have been in majority, but the chairman ruled: “I think that ayes have it, so the recommendations are adopted.”
Law Minister Babar Awan set about ridiculing the MQM and JUI-F for opposing the approval of reports which their representatives in the house committee had signed.
Legislators belonging to the PML-N, PML-Q, MQM, JUI-F and those hailing from Balochistan and Fata, talking separately to media, vowed not to allow its approval by the National Assembly.
They criticised what they termed bulldozing of the bill by the chairman and said it was against the interests of the people.
In an interesting move, the chairman expunged his own remarks in support of the treasury lawmakers after Zafar Ali Shah of PML-N took exception to them.
After hearing arguments from both sides, the chairman declared against the rules Wasim Sajjad’s bid to send a recommendation to the National Assembly not to approve the bills.
Before the vote, Mr Sajjad said he was staging a walkout in protest against the chairman’s ruling and because the PML-Q did not want to be part of a process leading to approval of recommendations about bills rejected by it.
The BNP-A’s Kulsoom Peveen used some unparliamentary words against those opposing the bills after recommending amendments to them in the standing committee.
Her party had earlier opposed the bills.
Change of heart
The Awami National Party had a visible change of heart (apparently following a meeting between Asfandyar Wali Khan and President Asif Ali Zardari) as Haji Mohammad Adeel and Ilyas Bilour criticised those opposing the bills.
Senator Raza Rabbani stuck to his stand that the RGST bill was not in accordance with the Constitution because the federation was not authorised to legislate on matters falling in the provincial jurisdiction, like taxation on services.
Expectations that strong opposition by coalition partners and the opposition might force the government to withdraw the contentious bill, like the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) last year, proved wrong.
While all senators belonging to the MQM and JUI-F, led by Minister Babar Khan Ghauri and Maulana Ghafoor Haideri, stood up to disrupt the proceedings, the opposition members kept sitting as silent spectators.
When the chairman repeatedly asked the standing committee’s Chairman Ahmad Ali to table the reports and told him that otherwise someone else would be asked to do so, he fulfilled his responsibility after offering resistance for some time.
Amid the shouting, Mr Ghauri said to the chairman: “You should not bulldoze – you are duty-bound to resolve the matter as custodian of the house in complete impartiality.”
Sabir Baloch of the PPP expressed dismay over an unprecedented example of a minister speaking in the house against the government.
Nabi Bangash of the ANP called upon the MQM minister to resign before confronting the government.
Azam Swati, a minister from the JUI-F, appealed to the chair to call a vote because 11 of his party’s 12 lawmakers were present to oppose the controversial bills.
Dr Abdul Malik of the National Party said: “We have rejected these bills and will continue to oppose them.”
Interior Minister Rehman Malik remained active throughout the proceedings and kept pacing up and down the house to persuade the opponents to soften their stand.
Dr Abdul Hafeez Sheikh and Hina Rabbani Khar, the Minister and the Minister of State for Finance, oversaw the proceedings without rising from their seats even once.
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