ISLAMABAD, JULY 13 (DNA) – Strongly opposing Senator Saif Ali Khan\u2019s constitutional amendment to amend the NFC in the senate today, Parliamentary leader of the PPP in the Senate, Senator Sherry Rehman in her speech said, \u201cIt is the provinces tax collection that is running Pakistan, not the federation which is complaining about \u201cgiving away its resources\u201d to the provinces.
\nThis is a backdoor attack on the federation\u2019s unity and stability. Have people not seen the history of the country? Where Pakistan broke because of such attacks on provinces rights?\u201d
\nShe said, \u201cThe 1973 constitution, 18th Amendment and this formula have gone through a mature democratic process. Don\u2019t attack the parliament and its constitution this way.
\nThese attacks are coming from the treasury bench. When they don\u2019t like the parliamentary system, one speaker asks to undo the social contract between the province and the federation while another says bring in the presidential system\u201d.
\n\u201cThis is Pakistan\u2019s basic social contract which keeps the country and provinces together. This is a federation.
\nOne thing keeps us bonded together, and that is our constitution. But now there are efforts to change this which has made their dubious aims clear. We will not allow this,\u201d she added.
\n\u201cWhy the need to extract more money from the provinces? Because they can\u2019t do basic things like even maintain records of tax collection; the record-breaking increase in public debt and liabilities, Rehman said, \u201cThe federal Government is staggering in its incompetence and inability to run the country. They are running on unprecedented debt.
\nNo government in the past 73 years has taken on additional debt of Rs 619 billion a month, every month. But this government has set a new record, over the past 630 days, the federal government has taken an average of Rs20 billions of additional debt a day, every single day\u201d.
\n\u201cThe provinces are in surplus re tax collection. If you can\u2019t run the federation outsource it to us in Sindh as we are 8% over our targeted tax collection. So are other provinces.
\nIt is Islamabad that is repeatedly failing and slipping drastically on every target.,\u201d she added. \u201cWe challenge them to talk about this. The NFC has better allot all tax collection to the provinces.\u201d
\nShe said,\u201d The federal government has changed 5 FBR heads in the past 18 months which reflects their gross mismanagement. We are given IMF targets which even they know cannot be met. Now even IMF is saying that the recent budget is not balancing.
\nThis has nothing to do with the provinces as they are providing the salaries and running the country financially. I challenge the government to open up the tax collection books and check the records.
\nIf the federal government cannot meet their targets then outsource the tax collection to Sindh if they can\u2019t do it. We will deliver above the targets\u201d.
\nParliamentary leader of the PPP in the Senate, Senator Sherry Rehman concluded by saying that, \u201cThe attack on the NFC award is unacceptable.
\nThe incompetence and unprecedented mismanagement of this government is a threat to Pakistan. The provinces are running this country and we will not allow the Federal government to steal from the people\u201d. DNA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
ISLAMABAD, JULY 13 (DNA) – Strongly opposing Senator Saif Ali Khan\u2019s constitutional amendment to amend the NFC in the senate today, Parliamentary leader of the PPP in the Senate, Senator Sherry Rehman in her speech said, \u201cIt is the provinces tax collection that is running Pakistan, not the federation which is complaining about \u201cgiving away […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":72558,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-132111","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-top-news"},"yoast_head":"\n