ISLAMABAD, June 20: The National Assembly on Friday passed 33 demands for grant worth Rs117.5 billion for the Cabinet Division and the communications, education and food and agriculture sectors in the first step towards passage of the budget for 2008-9.

Opposition lawmakers alleged that the government, despite its claims of cutting non-development expenditure, had allocated Rs2 billion for purchasing helicopters under the garb of relief and it intended to purchase new cars for which it had set aside Rs2.69 billion.

“All the PPP ministers who have been assigned more then two ministries have also taken in their control four or five luxury vehicles which are run on government fuel,” a member lamented.

The lawmakers expressed astonishment and dismay over allocation for a Ziarat holiday home and similar ones for Karachi and Murree apparently by bureaucrats to benefit themselves.

They criticised the government for doing very little for promoting agriculture, which contributed 21 per cent to the economy and employed more than 60 per cent of workers.

A member said that the sugar millers were not paying the cane growers fully which hampered timely sowing of the crop and lowered the production. He said the small farmers were also suffering at the hands of the government and getting less return for their output.

The members called for increasing facilities of easy and cheaper agriculture loans, facilitating small loan defaulters, offering more subsidies on fertilisers and other inputs and streamlining irrigation in the water deficit areas of Punjab, Sindh and Balochistan.

They castigated the Capital Development Authority for its failure to provide basic amenities like clean drinking water, a pollution-free environment, smooth traffic and sufficient sports and gym facilities to people.

They pointed out the highhandedness of bigwigs who had constructed huge palaces on CDA plots allotted to them for fruit and vegetable farms.

They demanded that the National Accountability Bureau should be disbanded in accordance with Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani’s first speech, alleging that the bureau had done no good except victimising political opponents.

A lawmaker questioned as to why the prime minister was enjoying the same protocol which was available to his predecessors if he was committed to an austerity drive.

An independent lawmaker asked why the government had failed to constitute the Council of Common Interests. He said 11 meetings of the CCI had been held over the past 36 years, which was a violation of the Constitution.

The legislators criticised an increase of Rs10 billion in CDA’s budget although it had failed to properly provide the citizens sanitation, remove encroachment, manage weekly bazaars and maintain parliament lodges. They said even the streetlights were left on during the day in the capital.

A member from Karachi criticised the Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority for spending a huge amount on establishment expenses while doing little to mitigate the problems of the survivors of the October 2005 earthquake. He said the Balakot town had been destroyed but its survivors were still without proper social services.

He said no school, hospital or other facility had been built by Erra for the survivors in the area, while progress on constructing the new Balakot town was also very slow.

The performance of the Federal Public Service Commission was also criticised.

Frivolous and luxurious foreign tours by government officials, the prime minister, ministers and parliamentarians were also criticised and a demand was made that everyone who paid a visit abroad should submit his report in the house.

Less allocation for the National Vocational Training Programme was criticised.

Communications Minister Khurshid Shah assured the house that all the major road projects like Indus Highway, Karachi-Hyderabad motorway, Hasanabdal-Mansehra expressway, Karakoram Highway, Lowari tunnel, Northern bypass, Multan-Faisalabad highway, D.G. Khan-Kila Saifuallah highway would be completed in time.

As minister in charge for education, Mr Shah said successive governments in the past had failed to pay attention to the sector and, as a result, over 70 per cent of the population was illiterate.

He assured the house that the government, which had made a nominal increase to 2.6 per cent from last year’s 2.3 per cent of the GDP, would increase the allocations in the future.

He admitted that large private educational institutions could not help alone and the country would have to establish a credible system in which every citizen irrespective of affluence could attain best education.

PML-Q’s chief whip Riaz Pirzada announced withdrawal of all cut motions for the education sector to facilitate the passage of the demands for grants. The opposition withdrew 64 cut motions.

The house passed 19 demands for grant worth Rs590.669 billion for the cabinet division and associated departments, four demands worth Rs10.939 billion for the communications division, four grants for education and Higher Education Commission worth Rs22 billion and five demands for grant worth Rs1.9 billion for food and agriculture.