Rs 2.583 trillion expenditure for fiscal year 2008 pushed through National Assembly: opposition and journalists stage token walkouts

The government on Tuesday pushed through the National Assembly charged expenditure amounting Rs 2.583 trillion for financial year 2007-08 amid opposition's seething criticism on Election Commission for compiling faulty electoral lists.
There is an accumulated figure of around Rs 2.074 trillion for repayment of domestic debt in the charged expenditure. Besides criticising hefty expenditures of the Presidency and the Prime Minister House, the Opposition grilled the Election Commission, and said the controversial electoral lists were a deliberate attempt to rig the next polls.
The Opposition as well as journalists staged token walkouts from the National Assembly against murder of a person in PPP senior member Nawab Yousaf Talpur constituency and murder of a journalist in Sindh.
Taking part in the poorly attended debate on charged expenditure for the next fiscal year, the Opposition members said the newly compiled electoral lists have exposed government's claims of holding free, fair, and transparent elections.
Most opposition members said there was no possibility of fair and transparent elections unless the government makes corrections in the electoral lists and elections take place under an independent Election Commission.
Opening the debate, Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) Deputy Secretary General Liaquat Baloch expressed serious doubts over the credibility of the EC and demanded an independent commission appointed in consultation with the Opposition to ensure free and fair elections. Baloch said the names of more than 20 million voters were missing from the computerised lists that seriously damage the credibility of the EC.
PPP-P member Naveed Qamar was even surprised whether the government plans to hold election this year or not. He termed the faulty voter lists worst type of pre-poll rigging that shows that the government was not ready to hold free and fair elections in the country.
Pervaiz Malik of Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) was of the view that the electoral rolls should be prepared on the basis of National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) instead of going into futile exercise of preparing new lists with full of irregularities.
MMA leader Abdul Ghafoor Haider informed the house that Rs 0.6 million was being spent in the Presidency daily whereas the expenditure of the Prime Minister House was around Rs 1 million per day.
The Opposition demanded of the government to include expenditures of the Presidency, the Prime Minister House, the National Assembly and the Senate in the un-charged expenditure.
It was demanded that chartered accountant firms should conduct audit of federal ministries and corporations. The Opposition benches said the Parliament was not being taken into confidence while formulating the budget and allocation of charged expenditure. Later on Tuesday evening, State Minister for Finance Omar Ayub Khan wound up the debate on charged expenditure, saying the huge amount shown in domestic debt was an accumulated figure and it was shown in the budget as per constitutional requirements. The National Assembly would now start discussing cut motions from Wednesday when the house meets at 1030 hours.