Islamabad [Pakistan], June 19 : The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Senator Afnan Ullah Khan in the Senate revealed that 2,500 bureaucrats, including four federal secretaries, hold dual nationality, The News International reported.
While participating in the ongoing budget debate on Wednesday, Khan said that he had moved a bill in the House, demanding a ban on dual nationality of bureaucrats, which was unanimously passed by the Senate committee, but it has not come to the House for consideration yet.
He questioned how a person can stay loyal to two nations simultaneously and connected the issue with the recent damage caused to Iran by the agents of some other nation, and claimed the presence of many Israeli agents in Pakistan. He warned that a heavy price would have to be paid if they were not arrested on time, The News International reported.
During the discussion in the parliament, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) lawmaker Quratul-Ain Marri criticised the budget and stated that the government had repeatedly proved that it did not need allies. She expressed regret that discussions with them showed no tangible results and urged the government to have introspection and understand that if it wants to work with the allies.
Marri voiced concern over the money allocated to the agriculture sector during the budget. While criticising the budget, she said, "We have been listening since childhood that ours is an agro-based economy and agriculture is the backbone of the economy, but in this budget, this backbone has been broken. There are neither incentives for the farmers nor a long-term plan to increase the yield of crops, which is declining constantly."
She slammed the imposition of taxes on sectors impacting the low-income class, like solar panels and electric cars. She demanded prioritising climate change and slammed the government for a lack of proper planning and budget needed to tackle climate change challenges.
Defending the budget, PML-N senator Pervaiz Rashid said that prices remained stable after the budget was presented, and goods were available in adequate quantity. He mentioned that the financial market also praised the budget, The News International reported.
Balochistan Awami Party (BAP) parliamentary leader Manzoor Ahmad Kakar said that no long-term policy has been made to pull Pakistan out of the economic quagmire, get rid of the debt trap and deal with the challenge of poverty. He praised budgetary measures taken for construction sector.
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