Uproar, scuffle in NA: Tarin presents Finance (Supplementary) Bill 2021

Islamabad: Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin on Thursday presented the Finance (Supplementary) Bill 2021 — or the mini-budget as the opposition calls it — in the National Assembly amid uproar from the opposition benches.

It is pertinent to mention here that the bill was originally scheduled to be presented in parliament on Wednesday but the cabinet had deferred its approval due to desiring a threadbare discussion on it.

A session of the National Assembly held under the chair of NA Speaker Asad Qaiser. Speaker Asad Qaisar said that the bill will not be forwarded to the standing committee concerned. The House also adopted the resolution seeking extension in The Election (Third Amendment) Ordinance for 120 days.

During the session, the Lower House of the Parliament approved passed a resolution moved by Babar Awan, Adviser to the Prime Minister on Parliamentary Affairs, to suspend the rules. Later, Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin introduced the Supplementary Finance Bill 2021 (Money Budget) in the National Assembly.

Opposition staged protest and called for a boycott of the assembly and chanted anti-government slogans.

As Tarin presented the bills, opposition members chanted slogans and gathered before the chair.

The protest intensified when the government presented several ordinances for the approval. The opposition members claimed that the ordinances had already expired or lapses after completing 120 period and they could not be presented for the approval under the Constitution.

The treasury benches resorted to a tit-for-tat response.

Pakistan Peoples Party’s Shagufta Jamani and PTI’s Ghazal Saifi came to blows on the floor of the house.

Shagufta Jamani slapped the ruling PTI’s MNA in the session when the mini-budget Finance (Supplementary) Bill 2021 was presented in the current session. 

The fight between the opposition and the government members broke out in front of the NA speaker's dice during the NA session.

The ordinance passed during the Thursday’s session included:

The Federal Government Properties Management Authority Ordinance, 2021

The Elections (Third Amendment) Ordinance, 2021

The Public Properties (Removal of Encroachment) Ordinance, 2021

The Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources (Amendment) Ordinance, 2021

The Pakistan Food Security Flow and Information Ordinance, 2021

The Tax Laws (Third Amendment) Ordinance, 2021.

'Don't sell Pakistan'

Speaking on the occasion, PML-N leader Khawaja Asif said the government had violated the Constitution by presenting an ordinance that had already lapsed and expired.

"You're giving SBP's control to IMF. Please have mercy on the people of Pakistan. Don't sell Pakistan. You allowed people to loot the country for three years," he said. He urged the House to not let Pakistan surrender its integrity.