Founder President Women Chamber of Commerce Quetta and Former Vice President PCCI, Fehmida Jamali said it is both unfair and unnecessary for the current government to present the budget. It has no moral authority to decide budgetary priorities beyond its own term. It should rather focus on the next 50 days instead of worrying for the year ahead; she added and said on what mandate you could plan the country budget for the whole year for the period of July 2018 to June 2019; she added.
She quoted Article 86 to show that the Constitution provides cover for the fiscal management for an interim period without parliament, not exceeding four months. Thus there is no bar on the authority of the caretaker government to authorize expenditures for 120 days (ie up to October 28, 2018) when the assembly stands dissolved. Technically speaking, if this government does not give the budget for the next year, it would neither violate a legal provision nor leave a vacuum for the interim government
The PML-N government will complete its tenure on May 31, after which the caretaker setup will take over to ensure transparency of general elections and if it's so much required on a technical term then the sitting National Assembly may allowed one month extension of the current budget fiscal year as a special circumstances but I don't think so that requires.
Fehmida said if the current government presents the budget then it will be a political budget, she said, explaining that the budget's sole purpose would be to gain a political advantage. "It is the responsibility of the new government to present the budget of 2018-2019 for the business community and the people of Pakistan.
She further mentioned it would be better to give the opportunity of formulating the budget to a government, which would be returning with a fresh mandate from the people, rather than to limit its choices. More than the budget itself, it is the finance bill that would be of critical significance, so that this country could not face another mini budget.-PR
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