ISLAMABAD-The National Assembly Standing Committee on Finance and Revenue has deferred five government’s bills as protest due to the absence of Adviser to the Prime Minister on Finance and Revenue Abdul Hafeez Shaikh.
The committee on February 27 had decided that it would not consider the government bills in the absence of Hafeez Shaikh who normally does not attend the meetings of parliamentary committees. The adviser has once again not attended the yesterday’s meeting. Therefore, the committee, which met under the chairmanship of Faiz Ullah, MNA, decided to defer to discuss five government’s five bills. The bills included The Tax Laws (Amendment) ordinance, the SBP banking services corporation (Amendment) bill 2019, the Post Office cash certificate (amendment) bill 2020, the Post Office National Savings certificate (amendment) and the Government Savings Bank (amendment) bill 2020.
The Committee has also recommended that the following bills should not be passed by the National Assembly, the Controller General of Accounts (Appointment, Functions and Powers) (Amendment) Bill, 2019”and the Islamic Development Bank (Amendment) Bill.
The secretary ministry of finance and revenue appraised the Committee about the draft strategy of the upcoming budget for financial year 2020-2021. He also briefed the Committee regarding International Monetary Fund (IMF) Staff level Agreements made by the Government of Pakistan during an in camera meeting.
The meeting was attended by MNAs, Faheem Khan, Qaiser Ahmed Sheikh, Ali Perviz, Dr. Aisha Ghaus Pasha, Ms. Nafisa Shah, Syed Naveed Qamar, Dr. Ramesh Kumar Vankwani, besides the senior officers from Ministry of Finance, Revenue & Economic Affairs and Federal Board of Revenue (FBR).