ISLAMABAD: State Minister for Finance and Economic Affairs Rana Afzal Khan will deliver the last budget of the current government in the National Assembly, despite Adviser to Prime Minister (PM) on Finance and Revenue Miftah Ismail and Special Assistant to PM on Revenue Senator Haroon Akhtar expecting the same role.
The incumbent government will present the last budget of its tenure on April 27, in the National Assembly but had not yet chosen anyone to deliver it.
Now, the former prime minister Nawaz Sharif has given the go head to State Minister Rana Afzal to deliver the speech for the upcoming budget, it has been learnt reliably.
Sources close to this development told that as the budget preparation process is largely being supervised by Miftah Ismail, he was expected to deliver the speech as he also enjoys good ties with the prime minister, however, his name is not being considered as he is not an elected member of the assembly.
Though he is facing issues related to the budgetary matters outside the parliament, he will not be justifying the budget inside the parliament. That duty has been given to Rana Afzal.
Interestingly, on the other hand, Special Assistant to PM on Revenue Senator Haroon Akhtar, was also expecting the same role after getting elected as a senator. He was very sure that he will replace Miftah and become the federal minister for finance once he becomes a senator but the dual nationality issue has become a bone of contention.
Insiders claim that State Minister Rana Afzal, who, earlier as parliamentary secretary on finance, has been handling standing committees and queries in the parliament, was very upset when he learnt that the budget speech would be delivered by Miftah or Haroon Akhtar. He met with PM Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and complained of being ignored despite being an elected member of the parliament representing the finance ministry. He as insiders say, however, could not convince the PM, as Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, still considers Rana a close aide of the former finance minister Ishaq Dar.
Later Rana Afzal reportedly discussed this matter with former PM Nawaz Sharif and the ousted PM directed Shahid Khaqan Abbasi to let Rana deliver the budget speech in the parliament. Rana successfully convinced the former prime minister saying that he could easily handle the parliament as he has been handling queries and presenting government bills in the absence of Ishaq Dar in both houses of parliament impressively.
It is pertinent to mention here that presently four high ups of the ruling government including the PM are handling the matters of finance and economy.
Meanwhile, according to sources, the Finance Division has scheduled Priorities Committee meetings, which will be co-chaired by the finance secretary, planning secretary and economic affairs division secretary, from Monday to Friday (April 2-6) to review and finalise recurrent and development budget for the next fiscal year (2018-19). The Finance Division, through a letter, has informed the ministries and divisions that March 30 is the last date for submission of budget requirements (2018-19) to the Finance Division’s Budget Wing.
In the Priorities Committee meetings, ministries and division are required to bring brief summaries on: (i) services (output) the Principal Accounting Officer (PAO) will deliver in the next three years; (ii) allocation of three years ceilings for recurrent and development budget by services (output); (iii) the main challenges PAO would like to highlight; (iv) and actual services (outputs) for the year 2016-17 as compared to budgetary allocation.
