Shamshad Akhtar’s absence from Senate committee meeting infuriates members

Finance Minister Dr Shamshad Akhtar’s absence from the Senate's finance committee meeting Wednesday due to engagements had the committee members infuriated, the 24NewsHD TV channel reported.

A meeting of the finance committee was presided by the Chairman Senator Saleem Mandviwalla where Finance Minister Dr Shamshad had to give a briefing about the economy.

Mandviwalla said that the agenda of the meeting was set for a briefing from the caretaker finance minister on the country's economy. He directed the committee to ask Dr Shamshad about her availability and summon the meeting again when she is free to give the briefing.

He said that if the finance minister is not available, former finance secretary Dr Waqar Masood should be called for the briefing as he is a part of the finance ministry for a long period of 28 years.

Senator Mohsin Aziz said the meeting is useless without the finance minister. He said the commercial banks in the country are earning huge profits as the amount earned as profit in the last three months by them was a whopping Rs280billion.

Azad Kashmir PM Chaudhry Anwarul Haq, while briefing the committee said that the law and order situation has improved considerably in Azad Kashmir after the last meeting of the finance committee. He said that the electricity bills were burnt in Kashmir for the first time as protest.

Chaudhry Anwarul Haq demanded that Azad Kashmir should be given a share from the federal revenue and if there is a deficit in the tax collections of Pakistan, it should not be deducted from Kashmir’s share.