Opposition demands scrutiny of defence budget

The Opposition Thursday called for a parliamentary scrutiny of the defence budget to ensure transparency in the military spending. Debating the budget 2007-08, the opposition legislators said the government has allocated a hefty amount for the defence that should be scrutinised by the Parliament.
Pakistan People's Party and Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) demanded threadbare discussion on the defence budget. The budget debate was marred by the opposition protests against arrests of its party workers in Punjab ahead of Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry's visit to Faisalabad and death of a PPP leader in prison, having sympathy of a treasury member Farooq Amjad Mir as well.
Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz along with PML President Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain attended the proceedings for a while. Taking part in the debate, PML-N leader Khwaja Saad Rafique called upon the government to provide complete detail of billions of dollars it had received from United States for handing over al Qaeda men.
He said the nation should also be informed about the military assets, which are coming out of its 'real estate business'. Khwaja was of the view that people were not ready to accept government's absurd figures. Besides ridiculing what he said repeated announcement of setting up 5000 utility stores across the country, Khwaja said fiscal and trade deficit was going alarmingly high.
He cautioned Pak Army not to become a party in what he said freedom fight between the people and rulers. Another PML-N lawmaker Khwaja Asif endorsed Saad Rafique and said as many as Rs 350 billion have been allocated for the defence budget while the military pensions would be arranged from the civil budget.
He said the military was operating largest freight network, NLC, biggest construction company, FWO and a giant cement plant, demanding that there should be an accountability of the entire activity.
Khwaja Asif called upon the government to bring transparency in the military budget that should be done through a parliamentary accountability system. PPP lady member Naheed Khan also demanded of the government to bring defence budget in the Parliament for a threadbare discussion.
The other opposition members said that the poverty has forced people to even sell their children. They said the budget was drafted by bureaucracy that has nothing to do with the sentiments of poor people. They demanded of the military to go back to barracks, adding that there was a dire need to hold free, fair and transparent elections to restore true democracy in the country.
A treasury member Riaz Hussain Pirzada feared that arrests political leaders including PML-N President Makhdoom Javed Hashmi could be some conspiracy against the government. The combined opposition staged two token walkouts from the National Assembly after a noisy protest against arrests of hundreds of its political workers in Punjab and death of a PPP party worker in Kot Lakpath jail.
The opposition parties announced that the Chief Justice would be accorded hero's welcome when he arrives in Faisalabad to address bar council there. Speaking on a point of order, Naheed Khan protested the massive crackdown launched against her party workers and office-bearers, as scores of political activists are being picked across Punjab and Sindh.
She shouted that the police were blindly raiding the houses of the party workers, breaching their privacy and picking them up indiscriminately. The opposition parties created rumpus in the house and later stormed out of the hall to protest arrests of their party activists. PML member from Lahore Farooq Amjad Mir expressed sympathy with the opposition over the death of Sarwar Mansoor in prison. Mir urged the Punjab government to stop arresting political activists.