ISLAMABAD: A brief argument among the senators over the controversial Kalabagh Dam enlivened an otherwise lacklustre debate on the federal budget in the Senate on Monday.

When Saud Majeed, a Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz senator from south Punjab, stressed the need for constructing the Kalabagh Dam to resolve water and energy-related issues, he was reminded by the Pakistan Peoples Party’s parliamentary leader Saeed Ghani that the three smaller provinces had already passed unanimous resolutions against the dam.

“The construction of the Kalabagh Dam is inevitable to save the country. It should not be turned into an issue that one cannot even discuss,” Senator Majeed remarked during his speech, where he praised the government for improving the economy.

He said that “all economic indicators show that our economy has become stable”.

Speaking on a point of order, Senator Ghani reminded the house that the provincial assemblies of Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan had passed resolutions against the construction of the proposed Kalabagh Dam on a number of occasions.

Upper house debates budget; passes resolution condoling Muhammad Ali’s demise

The PPP senator alleged that the current chairman of the Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) had been writing newspaper columns in support of the dam.

“Is he [Wapda chairman] a representative of those who have a certain point of view on the issue, or does he represent the whole country,” he said, asking the federal government to take action against the Wapda chairman who as “a government employee, should not be allowed to reject the resolutions passed by three provinces”.

Ghaus Muhamamd Niazi, another PML-N senator, then took the floor and defended the Wapda chairman, stating that he had not specifically mentioned Kalabagh Dam in his writings. He also endorsed Mr Majeed’s viewpoint, asking to initiate a debate on the issue.

“If three provinces have passed resolutions, it doesn’t mean we cannot even debate the matter,” Mr Niazi said, adding that “they need to take difficult decisions in difficult times”.

Here, Senate Chairman Raza Rabbani observed that resolutions passed by the three provincial assemblies would remain valid until they were not rescinded by the assemblies concerned. Then, in an apparent reference to the Wapda chairman’s writings, he said all bureaucrats must respect the resolutions passed by the legislatures.

Meanwhile, the house saw usual debates on the federal budget for the next financial year, with treasury members terming it “the best budget in the present circumstances,” whereas opposition members rejected it because it had nothing for the common man.

Ilyas Bilour of the Awami National Party regretted that this was the third consecutive PML-N budget without any allocation for the Munda Dam. He also alleged that the amounts allocated for various hydel projects in the previous budget had not been released.

Mushahid Hussain of the Pakistan Muslim League-Q said issues related to the common man had not been touched by the government in the budget. He said that Nigeria, which was considered to be the most corrupt country, had brought back $9 billion from foreign banks, whereas despite tall claims, the government had not taken any step to bring back the money lying in Swiss banks.

The PML-Q senator said that the tobacco manufacturers’ lobby had succeeded in getting cigareetes exempted, but milk had been taxed, which was an anomaly.

Nauman Wazir of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf said that the budget had not suggested any steps to curb corruption in the country. He maintained that the government had failed to broaden the tax base which, he claimed, had actually decreased during the present government’s tenure. He also criticised the government for involving the army in the development of the tribal areas, saying they should not look towards the army for every issue.

Senator Taj Haider of the PPP said that on one hand some 10 million overseas Pakistanis were sending remittances to the country and on the other hand the rulers were busy setting up offshore companies. He regretted that it was the third continuous budget that had been presented without finalising the National Finance Commission (NFC) award to ensure equitable distribution of resources among federating units.

He was of the opinion that the incentives announced for agriculture would benefit landlords and middle men rather than the poor farmers.

RESOLUTION: The National Assembly and the Senate on Monday unanimously passed separate resolutions to “express profound grief over the death of three-time world heavyweight boxing champion, a great human being, a legend and a civil rights activist, Mohammad Ali”.

Published in Dawn, June 7th, 2016