ISLAMABAD: The opposition in the National Assembly continued its protest against the government’s new tax measures and its reported plan to privatise the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), and walked out of the house for a second consecutive day.

Leader of the opposition Syed Khursheed Shah reiterated the collective stand of the opposition on the house floor, followed by a boycott of the sitting that lasted till the session’s adjournment.

Take a look: Opposition parties hit out at PIA ordinance

Later, parliamentary leaders of opposition parties addressed a joint press conference outside Parliament House, said that they would continue their protest until the government withdrew the PIA-specific ordinance and routed the newly-imposed taxes through the National Assembly.

PTI calls on govt to place both measures before the house

Taking a shot at the ruling PML-N in his speech on the house floor, Mr Shah said that if the government had to introduce a mini-budget after first quarter of the current financial year, “why doesn’t the government pass a resolution to present four budgets every year?”

While in opposition, Ishaq Dar and company would throw brickbats at the PPP government for issuing statutory regulatory orders (SROs), Mr Shah said, adding, “Now, the same Dar Sahib finds no fault in imposing taxes through SROs.” The government has issued five SROs for the new taxes amounting to Rs40 billion.

The PPP leader wondered whether Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his cabinet ministers were on the same page and asked how the government’s day-to-day affairs were being run.

When the speaker said that Senator Dar wanted to brief the opposition on both issues, Mr Shah said the opposition would listen to what the government had to say. Later in the evening, Mr Shah had a meeting with National Assembly Speaker Ayaz Sadiq in his office, which the NA secretariat’s media wing termed “a courtesy call”.

Outside parliament, PTI’s Shah Mehmood Qureshi said if the government was willing to commit on the floor of the house that PIA would not be privatised, and recent measures had only been taken to reform the flag carrier, “the opposition is certainly ready to listen to Senator Dar’s arguments.”

However, the media is reporting an altogether different story; that the corporatisation of PIA under the new ordinance was a first step towards its privatisation to meet a secret Dec 31 deadline, which the government had reportedly agreed to with the IMF, Mr Qureshi said.

“Whatever the government’s plan is, it must be brought to the floor of the house, where the opposition can at least give its input. This is a matter concerning the national flag carrier and its employees; the government has only worsened the crisis by not coming clean on its plan of action,” he said.

Mr Qureshi also said the opposition would accept new taxes only if the government brought them in the form of a bill before the National Assembly.

“Having a majority in the house, the government can even impose taxes of Rs80 billion instead of Rs40 billion, but only through the lower house of parliament. Right now, it seems as if the government has failed to meet its tax collection target and is looking to meet their objective through this unusual move.”

Chipping in, Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said the government had actually failed and was now resorting to levying new taxes. “If oil prices in the international market had not fallen and overseas Pakistanis weren’t sending remittances, one could imagine how the government would come after poor people with more taxes.”

Although nobody from the government side responded to the opposition on the house floor, a press statement issued by the media wing of the PM Office somewhat addressed the two issues.

Issued after a meeting between Senator Dar and the prime minister, the statement said that the finance minister had briefed the PM on the new PIA ordinance. “The PM was informed about the salient features of the new PIA company law partnership, which includes job protection of all employees of PIA, insulating PIA from bureaucratic control and to run it on an autonomous corporate model like OGDCL etc (sic)”. According to the statement, as per the directions of the prime minister, no PIA employee will be laid off.

The minister told the PM that of the Rs40 billion expected to be generated from the newly imposed duties on luxury items, Rs27 billion shall be allocated to provinces.

Published in Dawn, December 9th, 2015