ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly was informed on Thursday that the country’s economy suffered an estimated loss of over Rs1.5 billion due to the protest sit-ins and lockdowns held in the country during 2012 and 2018, which also included the 126-day dharna staged by the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf in Islamabad in 2014.

The information was placed before the assembly by Minister for Interior retired Brig Ijaz Shah during question hour through a written reply to a question asked by Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) MNA from Faisalabad Rana Sanaullah Khan, who was the home minister of Punjab during PTI’s sit-in in 2014 and then the famous Faizabad sit-in by the Tehreek-i- Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) in 2017.

“Quantification of losses to the economy in financial terms does not fall in the domain of Ministry of Interior. It is for Finance, Reve­nue and Economic Affairs Division and Planning, Develop­ment and Special Initiatives Division to calculate the impact. However, the information pertaining to the losses suffered over the last seven years on various sit-ins/law and order situations has been collected after great efforts from the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) administration and home departments of the provincial governments, [which showed] the country had suffered an estimated econo­mic loss to the tune of Rs1,507,197,263,” the minister said.

Giving the province-wise break-up, the minister told the assembly that the country had suffered a loss of over Rs1.16bn due to various protests in Islamabad during seven years, whereas Punjab had suffered a loss of Rs316.5 million during the same period.

PTI, MQM lawmakers condemn massive loadshedding in Karachi, overbilling by K-Electric

According to the minister, the sit-in staged by the PTI when it was in the opposition in 2014 had caused the country over Rs755m losses.

The 126-day-long sit-in organised by the PTI against alleged rigging in the 2013 elections had ended in December after the deadly attack on Army Public School in Peshawar by Taliban terrorists in which over 140 people, including 132 schoolchildren and teachers, were martyred.

Similarly, the minister’s reply shows that the TLP’s sit-in in Faizabad in November 2017 had caused a loss of Rs231.8m to the national exchequer.

Interestingly, the reply says that no loss had been reported in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan due to any protest during the above-stated seven-year period.

Govt policy on agriculture

The lawmakers continued a general debate on the “government’s policy on agriculture”, highlighting various problems being faced by agriculturists and farmers of the country and asking the government to provide subsidies on various farm inputs.

The most hard-hitting speech came from the ruling party’s member from Bhakkar, Sanaullah Mastikhel, who lashed out at the governments of his own party at the Centre and in Punjab for ordering police to take action against those who would store wheat and sugar at their homes.

He termed police raids on the houses of farmers an insult of the community, saying they would not tolerate it “without caring as to who is ruling the country”.

The PTI and MQM members from Karachi once again raised the issue of massive loadshedding and inflated power bills being sent to the people for the last two months and lashed out at K-Electric for its apathy towards the people of Karachi.

PTI’s Alamgir Khan announced that he would cut the power connection of the residence of the K-Electric chief executive officer. Besides this, he said, the people had already started agitation in the city and, in some instances, they had tied the K-Electric staffers to electric poles.

Published in Dawn, July 17th, 2020