Opposition's cut motions either turned down or dropped

The government on Wednesday sailed through the National Assembly demands for grants amounting more than Rs 0.9 trillion for next fiscal years, as all the cut motions moved by the opposition were either turned down or dropped.
The opposition boycotted the proceedings against Speaker Amir Hussain's decision to forward two references against PTI chief Imran Khan to the Election Commission.
Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz also attended the session from the very start and remained in the house throughout the proceedings. Nearly 920 cut motions were moved by the opposition against different heads including the defence expenditures other than charged expenditure for financial year ending on June 30, 2008 but the government took full advantage of opposition's absence and rushed through the House demands for grants especially regarding the defence division.
The opposition did not put up a strong show as most of the opposition top party leaders stayed away from the third reading of the budget. There were scores of demands for grants amounting to over Rs 0.6 trillion against whom the opposition did not give any cut motions it moved cut motions against only some demands for grants worth more than Rs 0.3 trillion.
The opposition members protested against what they termed 'needless' budgetary allocations for the cabinet division. They said there was a brigade of ministers, federal ministers, parliamentary secretaries and special advisors getting lucrative salary packages with no productivity. "The entire problem rests with the cabinet," remarked MMA deputy secretary general Liaqat Baloch. The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) also came under fire, as the opposition benches called for a heavy deduction of its budget. The institution, members from the opposition benches said, has never nabbed any person involved in stock market, sugar or cement scandals and was being used to change loyalties of political opponents only.
The opposition members also criticised the National Reconstruction Bureau (NRB, saying it has completely ruined the country's basic infrastructure whether it was political reforms or its basic objective to transformation of powers to grass roots level. Commenting on the demands for Atomic Energy, the opposition feared country's nuclear programme was being rolled back. It denounced the house arrest of founding father of Pakistan's atomic bomb.
Meanwhile, the Prime Minister held a detailed meeting with PML President Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and Railways Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed and discussed, what seemed to be, ongoing judicial and political crisis and to evolve a strategy for next general elections. He also had more than 15-minute long chit-chat with former Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali in the House. The House would now meet on Thursday morning at 1030 hours.