ISLAMABAD: Senate Standing Committee on Finance has expressed displeasure over uninformed absence of Chairman, Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) and Governor State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) from the committee meeting on Friday.

The meeting of the committee presided over by Senator Talha Mehmood has also decided to write a letter, on behalf of the entire committee, to the chairman FBR and governor SBP in order to convey the committee members’ concern.

An official of the FBR told the committee that the chairman FBR has to attend a meeting at the Prime Minister Office; therefore, he could not make it. Upon this, Senator Mussadik Malik said “Don’t lower the dignity of this House”. Senator Sherry Rehman wanted that the simple way of doing this was to defer their agenda item. Another member regretted that the chairman FBR did not inform the committee about his unavailability to attend the committee. The chairman of the Committee said that the meeting was schedule more than a week ago and he was conveyed well before time about the date of the committee meeting.

Sherry Reman suggested to the chairman that the committee should take notice of their uninformed absence from the committee. Some members also complained that the governor SBP rarely attended the finance committee on the agenda items related to the SBP. The committee decided to defer the agenda of problems being faced by Pakistani exporters to Afghanistan consequent to SBP letter dated December 7, 2021.

Those who attended the meeting included Leader of the House, Senator Shehzad Waseem, Senator Sherry Rehman, Senator Saadia Abbasi, Senator Saleem Mandviwalla, Senator Musadik Malik, Senator Kamil Ali Agha, Senator Zeeshan Khanzada, Senator Faisal Saleem Rehman, Senator Haji Hidayat Ullah and officials of Ministry of Finance, Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP), and Law Division.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022