ISLAMABAD - The Senate Standing Committee on Finance on Revenue has directed Finance Minister Asad Umar to brief the committee on increasing inflation rate and International Monetary Fund’s loan package in next meeting.
The committee, which met under the chair of Farooq H Naek, has also showed displeasure over the absence of Finance Minister from the committee’s meeting. Chairman committee said that finance minister should give importance to the parliamentary committee by attending its meeting. He said that Asad Umar should attend the next committee’s meeting and give briefing on inflation rate and IMF programme, which is almost finalised.
The committee members showed concerns over the rising inflation rate in the country. They noted that people are facing problems due to the increase in inflation rate. Senator Sherry Rehman said that government should brief the committee on the IMF programme. “The finance minister says details regarding IMF deal would be given later. If the IMF has to draw up the budget, what’s the purpose of having finance committees?” She also criticised the finance minister for not attending the committee’s meeting. Rehman said that inflation is rapidly increasing in the country, which makes the life of poor people miserable. Senator Ayesha Farooq Raza has also criticized the government for its economic policies, which had resulted in increase in inflation rate.
The parliamentary committee has also directed the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) to ask to Pakistan Stock Exchange Limited (PSX) to stop asking personal details of minor children of directors of listed companies. Senator Ayesha Farooq Raza said that why SECP had sought the details of children of a specific company. She further said that notices were issued to the directors of the listed companies to share details of minor children having no accounts in the Central Depository Company (CDC). The SECP should issue instructions to the PSX stipulating compliance of requirements for listed companies, she added. Later, the officials of the SECP gave assurance to the committee that they would ask the PSX to clarify the issue of seeking information from listed companies.
The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) briefed the committee on the Islamic banking the country. The central bank had started issuing licenses to Islamic banks since 2003. There are more than 2900 branches of Islamic banks in the country. More than 500 branches were opened in last two years. The profit of Islamic banks had enhanced to Rs24 billion. Gross income of the Islamic banks had reduced to 63 percent from 75 percent.
The officials of the SBP further informed that demand of the Islamic banks had increased in the country, as the people are massively borrowing from these banks. The committee members noted that Islamic banks had failed to achieve their results. The profit of these banks had increased massively, which is a question mark. The committee, later, decided to compare the performance of Islamic and non-Islamic banks in next meeting.