ISLAMABAD: Minister for Information, Broadcasting and National Heritage, Senator Pervaiz Rashid on Tuesday said it was earnest desire of the government that opposition parties had participated in budget proceedings.
"It is our earnest desire that opposition comes to the House. Our eyes are still looking for them. We tried our utmost to bring them back," he said in National Assembly on a point of order to explain the situation emerged after opposition parties' walkout.
"What happened the other day was not deliberate on part of the government. We never desired their keeping aloof of the proceedings. Even this moment we are looking for them," he added.
As the House witnessed uproar in the morning after the opposition parties complained that the government got approved demands of grants in absence of the opposition on Monday, the minister explained, the opposition parties had staged a token walkout and as per the norm and spirit of the token walkout, it is common understanding that in a token walkout the parties come back after recording their protest.
"But, in this case couple of ministers themselves approached the opposition to bring them back to the House. But, they did not turn up," he said and added, "We have been waiting them throughout Monday's proceedings and Finance Minister has himself been seeing towards the gallery door for the opposition colleagues.
He said the government or the treasury benches never deliberately commented anything that could have hurt the opposition parties. "We do not desire them to be absent from the House. Their absence is not due to any of our ill wish. We tried again and again, but may be the Opposition Leader could not persuade all opposition parties to participate in proceedings."
The minister also mentioned to Finance Minister's proposal to extend the duration of the House sitting if the opposition wanted to discuss the load shedding in detail and said, this proposal was also accepted by the opposition parties. "Therefore, we expected that they will participate in the proceedings, discuss budget and load shedding. This could have also given the government an opportunity to explain in detail the facts to the members."
The minister said the government has also incorporated number of opposition proposals in the finance bill and they themselves appreciated the Finance Minister for accommodating record number of proposals ever; by the Opposition in present budget.
"So we desired continuity of the proceedings with participation by the opposition parties. We desired their presence," the minister said.
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