ISLAMABAD – Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leader and former Senate chairmanRaza Rabbani wants to open a new debate and pendora box over the premierintelligence agency ISI.

He on Thursday demanded an in-camera session of parliament for discussionon funds allocated in the budget for Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI)director-general for ‘special assignments’.

Taking part in budget debate in the Upper House of parliament, Rabbani saidthe government had allocated Rs 4.5 billion funds in the budget for fiscalyear 2018-19 for the ISI DG for ‘special assignments’. During a post-budgetpress conference, the government in response to a question had said thatutilization of those funds could not be made public.

He demanded that the government summon an in-camera session of theparliament to brief parliamentarians about the ‘special assignments’ of theDG ISI.”We are not asking about other expenses but what do they mean by a‘special assignment’. This needs to be explained,” Rabbani said. “Theparliament should be taken into confidence over this payment made to the DGISI,” he added.

Rabbani also took note of a marked increase in defence expenditure for theupcoming year. “The defence budget has been increased by 20% on the federalgovernment’s recommendations. In the same way, budget for federalgovernment expenditure has also increased.

But, regretfully, the allocation for Public Sector Development Program hasbeen reduced, which will have a direct impact on the general public,” hemaintained.

Rabbani also questioned if increase in defence and federal expenditures hashad any effect on the National Finance Commission (NFC) award. “The NFCaward was not announced due to increase in defence and federal expendituresof the government.

This is the fourth budget which the government presented without NFCaward,” he regretted.”Neither this nor a four-month budget was needed, asthe caretaker setup would have had the authority to take finance-relateddecisions,” he said. Appreciating the annual budget, PML-F leader MuzaffarHussain Shah stressed the need to provide more incentives to theagriculture sector. He claimed that the economic situation in 2018 was farbetter as compared to that in 2013 due to prudent economic policies of theincumbent government.