NA begins 'lacklustre' debate on federal budget.

ISLAMABAD -- Fulfilling a mere formality, the National Assembly on Monday began a general debate on the federal budget presented by the coalition government last week with an unimpressive speech by Leader of the Opposition and PTI dissident Raja Riaz Ahmed.

In his speech, perhaps the shortest by an opposition leader on the federal budget, Mr Ahmed gave some suggestions to the new regime for improving agriculture, industry and power sectors while hitting out at the previous government of his own party, under Imran Khan.

The opposition leader delivered his speech to an almost empty house, visibly lacking quorum, as Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif also skipped the sitting, despite being present in Parliament House, where he met Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, who left the house after handing over chairing duties to his deputy Zahid Durrani.

Similarly, PPP chairman and Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari also arrived in Parliament House, but stayed away from assembly proceedings. He left the building after having an informal chat with some reporters in one of the lobbies during which he talked about his upcoming official visit to Iran.

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Ghaus Bux Mahar of the Grand Democratic Alliance was the only other speaker who took part in the budget debate. The MNA, who claims that his four-member GDA is a genuine opposition in the assembly, also hit out at Mr Ahmed, describing him as a friendly opposition.

'The opposition leader says he will contest the next election on the Muslim League's ticket. What does this mean?' ask the GDA MNA, who was also a contender for the office of the opposition leader.

Both Mr Ahmed and Mr Mahar, in their speeches, urged the government to give preference to the agriculture sector and asked the rulers to take immediate steps to end the ongoing loadshedding from the country by announcing incentives for wind and solar energy gadgets.

The opposition leader took the previous PTI government to task for allegedly not setting up any power plant in the country, saying the present regime had inherited this loadshedding.

Mr Ahmed called for a complete ban on smuggled items for promotion of indigenous products. He also called for building more dams in the country and giving preference to alternative sources of power, especially wind and solar. He urged the...