The National Assembly on Monday was told that the government was committed to make the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) an autonomous body and had introduced legislation in this respect in the Lower House.
Responding to a calling attention notice of Hamayun Saifullah Khan and four other lawmakers, State Minister for Foreign Affairs Hina Rabbani Khar referred to the SBP Amendment Act, passed by the National Assembly in November last year and said this was meant to strengthen the SBP.
She contradicted the media reports suggesting reluctance of government to give autonomy to SBP cited by Hamayun Saifullah Khan and urged the parliamentarians not to bank on media reports in opinion making. We want to empower the SBP governor so that he could take any action. "We should not base our judgements on newspapers," said.
Hina Rabbani clarified that after the passage from National Assembly, the Act was forwarded to the upper house of the Parliament and at present it was under consideration by Senate Standing Committee. The Senate may propose any amendment.
Meanwhile, Law Minister Babar Awan told National Assembly that Rs 4,461 million had been disbursed among 1,045,546 flood victims through Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP). Replying to a question in the National Assembly raised by PML-M MNA Qudsia Arshad, he said that each beneficiary had been given Rs 4,000, adding that one beneficiary did mean a family.
Replying to another question about petroleum prices, he said during the last two months, the government took a decision not to increase petroleum prices despite global increase adding that the financial impact of that would be around Rs 20 billion.
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