'Not a single party has economic agenda'

[Neo]

'Not a single party has economic agenda'

FAISALABAD (June 30 2010): Hamid Sultan Dawoodi President Pakistan Economics Resource Center(PERC) said that 13th National Assembly 2010-11 budget sessions remained fail in providing any relief to the public. The Role of Parliament in the Budgetary Process is to stabilise the economy, distributing income and allocating scarce fiscal resources to address competing needs.

Without budgets, even the best policy will amount to very little in practice, he added. While he was talking to newsmen on Tuesday said that the Budget sets the most important economic policy tool of the government and provides a comprehensive statement of the priorities of the nation.

He envisages that there are four stages for the budget execution, drafting, legislating, execution, and audit, only effective working can ensure that money is prioritised in line with policy and that funds are not siphoned off or diverted during budget implementation. Not a single party in the country has its economic agenda to resolve the problems of people, he added.

Hamid Sultan said that besides discussion of budget matters, in the parliament neither our foreign economic diplomacy discussed nor we pointed out any measures to curb the corruption and ways to bring positive steps in our institutional performance. Public Accounts Committee who raised serious allegation on government departments working related to corruption matters, not a single issue was discussed in the assembly, so much so, leader of the Opposition Chaudhry Nisar Ahmad attended budget session for three times only.

In other development countries budget session last for three to four months with 80 percent participation of parliament members and ministers, our parliamentary history reveals that during 2008-2009 budget session lasted 11 days with 45 hours total discussion, during 2008-2009 19 days and 41 hours discussion.

Similarly during 2009-2010 10 days with 42 hours discussion. The participation normally remained 40 to 45 members from the house of 345 members. These figures illustrate that twenty four hours we voiced over democracy and what are its fruits to public these are self-spoken from this data, he added.

Hamid Sultan mentioned that our democratic history the Balochistan Assembly approved budget worth Rs 13.19 billion for the current financial year in a record time of 20 minutes. Country lacks in effective system of drafting legislation, making budget appropriations, holding hearings with experts, and subsequent oversight by specialised parliamentary committees.

People who chair such committees don't have much of a clue as to where to begin, what questions to ask, and how to hold the executive and the bureaucracy accountable. As a result, once the laws and policies are approved, and budgets passed, there is not much oversight or accountability what is future and benefits of democracy to public is a matter of dilemma which require investigative thinking by judiciary, defence, and law enforcing establishment brass of the country for the safety of the country, he added.

Business Recorder [Pakistan's First Financial Daily]