Govt seeks to be part of investigation

ISLAMABAD: The spot-fixing scandal allegedly involving Pakistan’s cricketers continued to create waves on Monday, with the government scrambling to get involved in the matter. With a three-member team from the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) preparing to fly out to London, Pakistan has officially asked Scotland Yard to allow it to be part of the investigations into the scandal.

“Scotland Yard has been requested to make Pakistan a part of the investigation process,” Foreign Office spokesman Abdul Basit told The Express Tribune.

The request has been made through the Pakistan High Commission in London, the spokesman said. “We are  waiting for their (Scotland Yard) response,” he added.

The government had already announced that it would send a Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) team to London to examine the allegations that some Pakistani cricketers were involved in spot-fixing. The team, which will be headed by by FIA director Altaf Hussain, who will be accompanied by Inam Ghani and Inspector Tahir, have applied for UK visas, and will proceed to London as soon as their documents come through.

Officials said the FIA team will study claims that Muhammad Amir and Muhammad Asif deliberately bowled no-balls during the final Test against England at Lord’s.

Govt, opposition agree on cut motions for eight ministries

ISLAMABAD: The opposition has agreed with the government to move cut motions about just eight ministries when demands will be put before the National Assembly for vote later this month, Dawn has learnt.

Talking to this correspondent here on Sunday, a number of opposition members, however, justified the act, saying that it was a parliamentary tradition to reach an understanding with the government as it was not possible to discuss grants of each and every ministry or division on the floor of the National Assembly in such a short span of time.

Nisar lashes out at budget, calls for farm tax

ISLAMABAD: Opposition leader Nisar Ali Khan proposed agriculture tax on behalf of the PML-N as he opened a general debate on the budget in the National Assembly on Tuesday, to be told by a minister that the provinces were free to levy it.

Chaudhry Nisar lambasted the federal budget for 2010-11 as visionless and accused the government of doing little to deal with the country’s major problems such as the price-hike, energy shortages and poverty, climaxing his tirade with a token opposition walkout over perceived failures, including an alleged disregard of Supreme Court rulings and a delay in bringing a new accountability law.

But despite his strong criticism of what he called the “worst record” in the economic field in over two years of Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani’s government, he found “freshness” in soft-spoken Finance Minister Abdul Hafeez Sheikh’s presentation of the

CJ lauds parliament for correcting historic wrong

ISLAMABAD: Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry on Tuesday praised the parliament for undoing a wrong done by the legislature in 1985 (through a constitutional amendment) when it removed the word ‘freely’ from a clause of the Objectives Resolution that upheld the minorities’ right to practice their religion.

“Nobody has the right to tamper with the basic document,” the chief justice observed. He is heading a 17-judge full court hearing petitions against certain clauses of the 18th Amendment, including the limits of parliament’s right to amend the Constitution.

“It is strange that not even a single member in the 1985 National Assembly noticed the mistake and allowed the 8th Amendment to pass just like that,” the chief justice observed.

Opposition, MQM embarrass government in budget debate

ISLAMABAD: The government faced embarrassment in both chambers of parliament on Tuesday as not only the opposition but also its staunchest ally, the MQM, launched a blistering attack on the new budget and staged separate walkouts.

The opposition in the National Assembly called for addressing ‘structural imbalances’ in Pakistan’s economy and bringing agriculture under the tax net before it staged a walkout that was also joined by one of the government’s key allies to protest price hike and ‘visionless’ budget.

At the opening day of debate on budget in both the houses of parliament, the government suffered multiple setbacks when its economic policies came under fire from both sides of the political spectrum.