[Reader-list] PK: Parliamentarians strongly demanded Pre-Budget Session; Complain about an ineffective Role of Parliament in the Budget Process

Thu May 6 00:40:22 IST 2010

From: PILDAT News System <donotreply at pildat.org>
Date: Wed, May 5, 2010 at 7:54 PM
Subject: Parliamentarians strongly demanded Pre-Budget Session; Complain
about an ineffective Role of Parliament in the Budget Process

   <http://www.pildat.org/>

*Parliamentarians strongly demanded Pre-Budget Session; Complain about an
ineffective Role of Parliament in the Budget Process*

*Parliamentarians believed that:
 *

   -

   *Government promises to take Parliamentarians on board every year before
   the budget but does not honour its promise*
   -

   *Parliamentarians must play their role in oversight of
   departmental/ministerial Budget (Demands for Grants) in Standing Committees
   *
   -

   *Budget Strategy Paper-I, before it is discussed in the Cabinet in
   December, should be discussed in the Parliament*
   -

   *Standing Committees must play a role in holding Pre-Budget public
   consultations with the Public, Business and Civil Society.*
   -

   *Duration of the Budget Sessions in the Parliament must be increased*
   -

   *Parliamentarians must be included in the process at least three months
   prior to the Budget Debating Session *

   Islamabad, May 05: Parliamentarians, across all political parties,
including Ministers and State Ministers, demanded a pre-budget session of
the Parliament and complained that Parliament has a weak and ineffective
role in Parliamentary budget process. Instead of sharing Budget Strategy
Paper-I and II just with Cabinet and Parliamentary Committees on Finance,
Parliament and all Parliamentary Committees should be briefed about these
well in time. Members of Parliament expressed these views at a PILDAT
Briefing Session on *The New Budget Process in Pakistan: What
Parliamentarians Should Know* today.

"Every year the Government promises to take Parliamentarians on board before
the budget session but every year it does not honour its promise,"
complained MPs. "Cabinet only merely approves the budget without much
control over it, complained Mr. Azam Swati, the federal minister for Science
and Technology, while others believed that while federal cabinet approves
the budget there exists a huge gap between plans and allocations and the new
budget process should improve that system.

48 MNAs and 15 Senators from the PPPP, PML-N, PML, MQM and ANP including
representatives from FATA participated in the PILDAT briefing including 5
Federal Ministers and 3 Ministers of State.

*Mr. Nohman Ishtiak*, representative of the Ministry of Finance delivered a
comprehensive presentation on the new budget management reform programme
introduced by the Federal Government called the Medium-Term Budgetary
Framework (MTBF). He explained that the upcoming Federal Budget will be
based on the model known as 'Medium-Term Budget Estimates by Service
Delivery' which would present 1 year budget and 2 years projections for
services (outputs) delivered by each Ministry / Division. The services are
also linked with outcomes (affects on target population) and with the
performance indicators and targets.

He said that MTBF has already been introduced in the countries such as
United States of America, Canada, Australia, Great Britain, South Africa and
Japan. Now for the first time Pakistan has taken initiative to implement
MTBF in its budgetary process as well.

Mr. Ishtiak said that Budget is a vital instrument at both the macro and
micro level in Pakistan and MTBF aims to improve the budgetary process in
Pakistan. He said that MTBF hopes to bring more accountability across the
board.

The Federal Minister for Health, *Mr.* *Makhdoom Shahabuddin*, MNA and
former Finance Minister, chaired the briefing session and conducted the Q&A
session in the absence of Dr. Hafeez Shaikh, Advisor to the Prime Minister
on Finance, who could not join the session.

The Briefing was organized by PILDAT as a part of the *Parliamentary and
Political Party Strengthening Project* being executed by PILDAT in
association with the Ottawa-based *Parliamentary Centre* with the support of
*Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade.*
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