ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly will begin its session from Monday (today) with opposition parties flexing their muscles to take the government to task over a number of important issues, including the price hike and the unprecedented increase in petroleum levy.

The session, which is expected to continue till March 20, has been convened as the government and the opposition are busy in negotiations on some key legislations, including the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Ordinance, 2019.

The National Assembly Secretariat on Sunday issued a 23-point agenda for the Monday’s sitting which includes introduction of four government bills, tabling of a Pakistan Penal Code (Amendment) Ordinance, 2019, and passage of five bills.

NA session begins today with 23 points on agenda

When contacted, Pakistan Peoples Party’s (PPP) MNA from Hyderabad Syed Naveed Qamar said though the assembly in its previous sitting had held a debate on the issue of price hike, the opposition would again raise the matter in the upcoming session as poor people were still reeling under the price hike and the government had failed to provide them any relief.

Moreover, he said, the opposition would definitely seek a response from the government over 106 per cent increase in the rate of petroleum levy.

Opposition parties through their statements have blasted the PTI-led coalition government over up to 106 per cent increase in the rate of petroleum levy.

Opposition Leader in the National Assembly and PML-N president Shahbaz Sharif not only “condemned” the increase in Petroleum Development Levy, but also called for a parliamentary investigation into the matter calling this “an organised scheme of looting billions of rupees from the nation”.

Mr Sharif, who is in London these days, in a statement said that it must be investigated as to why did the government reduce diesel prices by just Rs5 per litre when Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) had proposed a reduction of Rs12.40.

The PML-N president said that this unacceptable levy of Rs25 on diesel, more than Rs19 on petrol and 105.5 per cent increase of the levy on kerosene was “brutal and beyond imagination”.

Speaker Asad Qaiser has convened a meeting of the House Business Advisory Committee before the start of the assembly session to discuss the agenda to be taken up by the assembly in the current session.

Published in Dawn, March 9th, 2020