SHURA HAMDARD IS CRITICAL OF INCREAMENT IN SALARIES AND OTHER BENEFITS OF PARLIAMENT'S MEMBERS

Speakers at the meeting of Shura Hamdard Karachi rejected the recently granted increment in salaries and other benefits of the members of parliament by the government and said that keeping in view the prevailing acute poverty in the country this increment could not be justified while MMA's members of parliament had already announced that they would not take this additional amount.

The meeting was held on Thursday December 11, 2003 on the topic of Parliament's one year performance and presided over by Justice (R) Haziquel Khairi, speaker, Shura Hamdard and ex provincial ombudsman Sindh at a local hotel.

Mrs. Sadia Rashid, President, Shura Hamdard Pakistan while addressing the meeting said that history of Pakistan was filled with many ups and downs relating to the systems of government. In this period many governments, democratic or claiming to be democratic, came to power, but not a single government could be able to complete its tenure successfully. The reasons and causes of this situation needed to be analysed deeply with mundane realities, she added. She said, "the age of present democratic set up is only of one year, but several questions about its performance are being raised in the country".

Speaking on the occasion Qutubuddin Aziz, Dy. Speaker, Shura Hamdard said that the performance of the present parliament regarding legislation was very poor and it did nothing except walkout and thumping of desks for the whole previous year. In such a situation a huge increment in the salaries and other benefits of the parliament's members could not be regarded as a good step. Those members who usually remained absent from parliament's sessions would also be benefited out of this increment, he added. Emphasizing the need of evaluation of the performances of district governments he said that this system should be improved by further empowering the Nazims and allocating them more funds.

Justice (R) Haziquel Khairi urged the government and the opposition to remove deadlock and to resolve the issue of LFO by negotiations and mutual understanding. Launching of any movement against LFO or present government would bear no fruit, he said adding; "because the results of such movements are always harmful and other General may come after a General and he too will be in uniform". This point should be kept in mind before launching a movement, he said.

General (R) Ghulam Umer said, "this is a wrong thinking that only politicians can solve the problems of the country and the armymen do not". He was of the opinion that whatever the situation of the democracy was going on in the country it should not be disturbed". "Let the democracy work, a bad democracy can be changed into a good democracy;' he said adding that if this setup is removed there are chances that autocracy would take root in the county". He said Pakistan came into being by democratic process and it could run smoothly by democracy only.

Dr. Mohammed Ali Siddiqui said that those who could legislate and do something for the nation have done nothing. The betterment of a nation depended on its foreign policy and when we kept huge dangers around us, because of our failed foreign policy how we could be able to pay our attention to education and poverty alleviation, he said adding that "there are no subjects of "Government" and "citizenship" in our secondary education syllabus while it is especially taught in west and as a sequal our people don't know their rights and functions.

Haq Nawaz Akhtar, former Chairman, Pak Steel stressed upon the need of consensus and political understanding and said this is the soul of democracy. Without political understanding and consensus neither we can resolve our problem nor face the challenges of other countries, he added. He said that the process of devolution of power was good but it should come down from center to province and province to district government in order to remove rift between provincial government and district government.

Col. (R) Mukhtar Ahmed Butt was of the opinion that we should adopt the tradition of non interference of one institution in the matters of other institution because our constitution had already defined the parameters of each constitutional institution. He said the opposition was thumping the desks to keep the supremacy of parliament. However they should register their protest by sitting silently in parliament and then walkout instead of thumping desks. This was the best way of protest. Referring to a report of UN he said our 32 per cent population have only Rs. 561 income per month while 39 per cent living in abject poverty. These statatics showed the poor performance of our parliament and economic experts.

Mohammed Ahmed Sabzwari, an economist said that the recent enhancement in the salaries and other benefits of parliament's members made every member able to get Rs. 11,48,500 and an arrear of Rs. 6 to 7 lacs each, since this increment has been granted w.e.f. July 2003. Were they entitled to this reward while millions of Pakistanis were living below the poverty line, he questioned.


Jam Amir Ali Khan, Mohammed Jasim Khan, Dr. Syed Amjad Ali, Dr. Wiquar Ahmed Rizvi, Khan Mohammed Hussain Khan, Mohsin Bhopali, Dr. Syed Irtefaque Ali, Dr. Nazar Kamrani and Anwarul Haq Siddiqui also spoke on the occasion.

In a unanimous resolution Shura Hamdard condoled the sad demise of renowned Islamic Scholar, preacher, veteran politician and Chairman, Muttahida Majlis e Amal, Maulana Shah Ahmed Noorani and offered fateha. Besides member, observers in a large number attended the meeting.

 

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