2,500 civil servants hold dual nationalities, Senate informed

ISLAMABAD, JUN 19 (DNA): The ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) informed the Senate on Wednesday that around 2,500 bureaucrats, including four federal secretaries, hold dual nationality.

During the ongoing budget debate, PML-N Senator Afnan Ullah Khan stated that he had introduced a bill in the House to bar civil servants from holding dual nationality. The bill was unanimously approved by the relevant Senate committee but has yet to be tabled in the full House.

Senator Afnan questioned the loyalty of individuals holding citizenship of two countries simultaneously. Referring to a recent incident involving foreign agents in Iran, he warned that Pakistan too harbours Zionist agents and cautioned that failing to take timely action could come at a significant cost.

Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) legislator Quratul-Ain Marri, while criticising the budget, also contended that the government had repeatedly proved that it was not in need of allies. She regretted that discussions with them yielded no tangible result and urged the government to have introspection and understand that if it wants to work with the allies, then it should with honesty and whole-heartedness instead of just paying lip service.

Senator Marri expressed concern over the state of the agriculture sector and remarked, “We have been listening since childhood that ours is an agro-based economy and agriculture is the backbone of the economy but in this budget, this backbone has been broken. There are neither incentives for the farmers nor a long-term plan to increase the yield of crops, which is declining constantly.”

She criticised the imposition of taxes on sectors affecting the low-income class like solar panels and electric cars, etc. She called for prioritising climate change and criticised the lack of proper planning and budget to tackle climate change challenges.

PML-N Senator Pervaiz Rashid defended the budget and said that in the past before the budget, an environment was made, as if a tsunami was coming and people would whisper about the possibility of an increase in prices and that commodities would disappear from the market.

He claimed that this time no such thing happened, prices remained stable after the presentation of the budget and goods were also available in adequate quantity.

He continued that the financial market had also appreciated the budget and the stock market reflected in terms of value-addition. He pointed out that it should be kept in mind that the budget was made in the midst of threats and ultimately Pakistan emerged successful.

Balochistan Awami Party (BAP) parliamentary leader Manzoor Ahmad Kakar lamented the fact that no long-term policy had been formulated to pull Pakistan out of the economic quagmire, get rid of the debt trap and how to deal with the challenge of poverty.

However, he appreciated the budgetary measures for the construction sector, saying it would give a boost to this sector. He advocated for maximum relief to the poor.

PPP’s Palwasha Khan opposed manifold increase in direct, and indirect taxes and sales taxes with a little increase in salaries, warning that it would only put more burden on the salaried class. She criticised tax on income from e-commerce and believed that it would adversely affect small-scale businesses and home-based entrepreneurs.

BAP’s Senator Danesh Kumar urged for increasing budgetary allocation for monitories while thanking the provincial governments of Punjab, Balochistan and Sindh for allocating special funds for minorities and promotion of their religious sites.

PML-N’s Kamil Ali Agha criticised the powers given to the Federal Board of Revenue, saying the dignity and honour of taxpayers should be ensured. He also called for increase in salaries of government employees by up to 25%.

Senator Fawzia Arshad urged for the provision of maximum relief to the common man, already under immense financial burden. She also called for the harvesting of rainwater in the federal capital. The House will resume now on Thursday morning (today).