The Senate resumed its session at Parliament House in Islamabad on Monday with Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani in the chair.

At the outset, the house offered fateha for the departed soul of the mother of Senator Nuzhat Sadiq.

Speaking on the floor of the House, Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar has said the government is taking all possible steps to uplift the living standard of the people of merged districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Responding to a point of order, he assured the House that the budget for the erstwhile FATA will not be curtailed.

Talking about the National Accountability Bureau law, Azam Nazeer Tarar said that the government is ready to sit with the opposition on deciding the fate of the NAB.

He, however, mentioned that NAB law was used for political engineering and arm twisting of opponents in the past.

The Senate also resumed discussion on the budget for 2022-23.

Participating in the discussion on the budget for next fiscal year, Naseema Ihsan urged the government to take steps to provide a respite to the poor from the rising inflation. She called for taking steps to reduce the burden on the national exchequer.

Dr Sania Nishtar said that the government should allocate a 50 percent quota for female education in the budget as per the previous practice.

Mushtaq Ahmed Khan termed the budget as IMF dictated. He said this budget contains nothing for the poor. He proposed that a scheme should be included in the budget to ensure availability of water share to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Those who participated in the discussion include Seemi Izdi, Kishwar Zehra, Khalida Ateeb, Kamran Murtaza and Dr. Zarqa Suharwardy Taimur.

The House has now been adjourned to meet again at 3pm on Tuesday.

Source: Radio Pakistan