Barbs fly over LG polls as budget sails through NA.

ISLAMABAD -- The National Assembly on Wednesday approved the finance bill with some major changes relating to taxation and levy on petroleum products in line with government's commitment with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The approval followed a verbal duel over the recent local government elections in 14 districts of Sindh in which the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) had emerged victorious.

Without a meaningful opposition, the budget session that lasted three weeks proved to be a mere formality, as both Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and leader of opposition Raja Riaz did not even bother to attend the crucial sitting during which members on both sides of the aisle seemed eager to deliver political speeches, rather than discussing the budget.

Taking part in the debate on the finance bill, the opposition members regretted that through amendments, the government had completely changed the budget it had presented in the house on June 10. They particularly took the government to task over an amendment through which it had sought to increase petroleum levy up to Rs50 per litre.

Finance Minister Miftah Ismail, however, made it clear that the government had no intention to impose the levy and that through the amendment it had only sought approval of the house for increasing it from zero up to Rs50.

All the amendments that had been moved by the opposition members were rejected through voice vote.

Interestingly, during the clause-by-clause approval of the finance bill, the tiny opposition challenged the ruling of Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf on a voice vote, forcing him to order a headcount.

The speaker later announced approval of the clause with a 120-11 vote.

The result of the headcount perhaps encouraged the treasury benches to speed up the process, and besides approving the budget, the government managed to get approved 29 supplementary grants worth Rs828bn for the year 2021-22, which was earlier scheduled for Thursday. Also, the assembly passed the supplementary grants for the previous three financial years.

During the course of the passage of the budget, the members mostly belonging to Sindh raised the issue of the violence-hit first phase of the local bodies elections in the province and accused the PPP of winning the polls through use of state machinery and rigging.

Besides the opposition Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA), the ruling coalition partners - the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (Fazl) and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) -...