There were two performances in the Pakistan parliament today. The presentation of the 2011-2012 budget by Finance Minister Hafeez Sheikh and the protest tamasha by the parliamentary opposition. Personally, I was disappointed in both performances. But much more in the later than the first. But maybe I am being a ‘harsh grader.’ So I do want to find out how our readers feel, so here is an ATP Poll. What was your reaction? (Please note there are two seperate questions, requiring two answers.)
Budget details, they were in the orioginal speech are here, in the original budget speech. For those who missed the performances, here is a small glimpse (highlights included PML(N) leader Ahsan Iqbal bringing a roti to the Finance Minister and others throwing bangles at the Prime Minister, in addition to constant shouting throughout the speech):
@Asad….as i said before…really it has been time that we had a democratic culture….Pakistanis have to observe the working of the assemblies of their neighbor to find out what racous they can go into and how that system delivered them to be one of the power houses of the world. Or probably democracy is an Indian conspiracy too. (add CIA and Mossad to the soup)
@Nihari
If we think democracy is about misbehaving, then democracy in Pakistan is in even bigger trouble than I thought.
Democracy is about tolerance and respect for difference and the belief that if I have better ideas I will get a chance to rove my ideas next time. Democracy is about giving those who have been given votes the chance to govern.
This is not democracy, this is an attempt to sabotage democracy. Simple rule, if you will not allow your child to behave a particular way in public then you should also not want your politicians to behave that way!
Grow up…..start living in a democracy…Democracy is not about yes sir no sir three bags full sir. It includes raising questions, protests and off course throwing bangles….There is no disciplined parliment in the world. We are mentally too used to Martial law. Due to these qualities of democracy our ex commando pres didnt had the balls of coming to his self elected parliment for so many years.
The budget is not bad, although I would have liked maybe less populist measures (for elections) and more infrastructure (specially energy) investment.
Its not a performance. It is how you want to run your house.
The development outlays are disappointing, especially compared with the overall size of the budget, and it looks like the utilization, as was the case this year, will be miserable again.
I am looking for investments in the power sector as that will be the lifeline that the country needs. There are 3-4 medium size projects that are currently in the works which will add over 2000MW to the national grid. Neelum hydropower with a capacity of almost a 1000 MW, and Guddu hydropower which is over 700 MW. However the allocations to these are modest, and I don’t know their schedule for completion and the current status. These need to be brought online as soon as possible to reduce the ever growing energy shortfall.
Another thing I don’t understand are the salary raises proposed for the government employees when the fiscal deficit keeps getting out of hand. The proposed 15% raises can be cut in half, and the ensuing savings can be used to solve the structural problems facing the economy.