As the finance bill for the next fiscal year 2021-22 has been passed on 29th June 2021, the post-budget session is taking place, and the Prime Minister of Pakistan has addressed the national legislative assembly today on 30th June 2021.
PM’s Speech
At almost 5:00 PM on 30th June Imran Khan addressed the National Assembly of Pakistan regarding the Budget 2021-22.
He began by thanking the PTI members and parliamentary allies for being part of the budget.
He then said that all the elections in Pakistan post 70’s era have been controversial and the government has worked for two years to finalize the electoral reforms, and they have been tabled for discussion but no discussion has yet initiated on the topic by the opposition.
He said that Pakistan’s democratic future depends on it, and thereby invited the opposition to participate in the electoral reforms.
He said that the only way to solve this election problem is the Electronic Voting Machines (EVM).
PM commented on the budget saying that the budget should reflect the vision of the government.
He said that he is happy the budget reflected his vision and thanked Shaukat Tarin for it.
Imran Khan said that Pakistan should always remain on the vision of its founding fathers, which was based on the state of Madinah.
The Islamic civilization was built on the principles of justice, humanity, and independence, Imran Khan added.
He then thanked the economic team of the PTI government.
The Prime Minister of Pakistan explained the economic condition of Pakistan when PTI came into power and said that such a situation led to difficult decisions.
He said that the government was already going through a crisis when the COVID-19 crisis came down upon an already struggling economy, but Pakistan fared better due to NCOC’s efficient policies.
PM Khan said that the decision of opening the construction sector, agriculture, and export sector of Pakistan was a wise decision.
In June 2021, Pakistan made a historical record as exports reached $2.7 billion in one month.
PM said Pakistan is now focusing on export-led growth and is focusing on how to make it easier for SMEs to obtain financing.
In the agriculture sector, PM appreciated Punjab’s step to introduce Kassan Card, which would lead to data collection, direct subsidies, and helping farmers overcome problems using data.
Pakistan would also focus on seed research and development to increase production so that Pakistan becomes a food exporter again.
The government has thus decided to subsidize and finance small farmers, which make for the largest percentage of farmers. Inspired by China, Pakistan is introducing Kassan Markets, joining Kissan and retailers, eliminating the middleman, and reducing cost.
Talking about the dairy industry, he said that most of the open milk in the market is contaminated, and to fix that Pakistan is going to genetically improve the cows and buffaloes.
For this, Pakistan has allocated a lot of money to the dairy sector.
PM Khan said that the incumbent government has allocated a record amount of money to social protection.
Read More: Budget FY22: Good start but still a long way to go
PM said that the government is introducing the “Kamyab Pakistan Programme” for the most impoverished 5 million households of Pakistan.
He said that Rs500 billion has been allocated for this project. This includes cheap loans for these people, Health cards would be given to these people under universal health insurance.
Imran Khan said that this is his biggest achievement.
PM said that the Awqaf land would be sold to private hospitals at cheap rates, and duty-free medical equipment would be imported for these hospitals.
The third thing after healthcare and loans is that the government would be giving free technical training to one person of each of these impoverished households.
The fourth social program is cheap housing under Naya Pakistan Housing Scheme.
Imran Khan said that the government would by next month have data for all of the Pakistani households.
He said that in the coming months, data relating to karyana stores would be complete, and would be used to disburse direct subsidy in form of necessities to 12 million households under Ehsaas Programme, once the recently passed finance bill comes into implementation.
Prime Minister of Pakistan explained the need to reform the justice system of Pakistan referring to Islamic History and Philosophy.
Self-reliance was another point discussed by Prime Minister Imran Khan.
He said that the biggest mistake of Pakistan was becoming the frontier state for the US’s war. He said Pakistanis should remember that decision.
He said that no nation takes participates in another nation’s war to sacrifice 70,000 of its men, and give away billions of dollars of its own for the war.
Imran Khan said that on the orders of the US, Pakistan sent armed forces against its own people in the tribal people just for a 100 Al Qaeda, destroying the area and causing mass displacement of people.
He said that a friendly nation, unlike the US would never bomb its own friend.
PM said that the UK would never allow Pakistan to bomb a Pakistani terrorist residing in London, so, why did Pakistan give permission.
This led to embarrassment for the country on international platforms.
PM Khan said that this means that Pakistan would never again compromise its sovereignty for another country.
Prime Minister said, “We can be partners in peace with the US, but cannot be partners in conflict.”
PM lastly urged the nation to pay taxes, if they want the country to develop.
On the ending note, PM said, “We will not restore any diplomatic relations with India until it takes back the steps of 5th of August”.
Other proceedings of the day
The Finance Bill 2021-22 was discussed clause by clause in the House. Amendments proposed by treasury members were accepted while those proposed by opposition members were rejected.
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After the clause by clause reading was completed, a voice vote was conducted by the NA speaker, and the budget was passed.
The government had defeated the opposition earlier on a motion moved by Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin for taking up the bill under consideration with a majority — 172-138 — vote.
It is worth mentioning that PPP under Bilawal Bhutto’s chairmanship has rejected the budget as “unconstitutional and illegal”.
Even on the continued session he severely criticizing the government over the provisions of budget 2021-22 and condemning the legislative process conducted on Tuesday, and later left the House after his speech.
Additionally, Chairman PPP said if “rigging” had not been carried out yesterday when the finance bill was being approved, the government would not have been able to obtain 172 votes.
On the other hand, the Chair of the national assembly read out a legal note saying that all the procedures were followed on 29th June and that there was no discrimination, as alleged by the opposition, against the opposition speeches, and everyone was given chance to speak and cut motions were accepted by the assembly.
Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi also supported the point that all the parliamentary procedures were followed. He added that records show that the opposition has been given more time than required.
The opposition questioned the government’s bypassing the parliament in giving supplementary grants to different departments. It was labeled as “financial inefficiency” by the opposition.
Read More: After record 93 hours debate NA passes budget 2021-22