ISLAMABAD – The opposition in the Senate faced another defeat when thegovernment managed to get three bills passed from the upper house ofparliament.
Ahead of the vote, Leader of the Opposition in the Senate Yousaf RazaGilani said that a public hearing was necessary before approving the price.However, Leader of the House Senator Shehzad Waseem said that the bill wasalready passed with consensus in the relevant standing committee.
Senator Raza Rabbani said that the bill should have been put before theCouncil of Common Interest. But on the other hand, Minister for Science andTechnology Shibli Faraz clarified that the bill empowers OGRA and has”nothing to do with the IMF and CCI.”
When the bill was presented before the House, the Opposition staged awalkout and the bill was passed by the Senate after the Dilawar Khan groupvoted in favour of the bill.
In the initial voting, 29 senators voted in favour and the same number oflawmakers voted against the bill. However, the bill was passed by the UpperHouse after Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani voted in favour of the bill.
The same happened during the allied health professional council’s bill; thesenate chairman cast the decided vote in favour of the law.
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Shibli Faraz accused the opposition of selectively citing rules anddistorting facts. He said it was the job of the regulatory authorities tolook after the public interest and the government was empowering them tomake them free from the executive’s influence.
Taj Haider of the PPP noted that the way forward was use of moderntechnology to control line losses and not the frequent hike in tariff. Healso called for work on the Pak-Iran gas pipeline project to get gas at amuch cheaper rate.
PPP parliamentary leader Sherry Rehman expressed concern over the stepstowards making regulatory authorities directly answerable to internationalmultilateral institutions.
She said despite subordinating Pakistani institutions to the IMF, Pakistanwould stay on FATF grey list.
