June 11th, 2024, Tuesday, Islamabad: Pakistan Institute for Parliamentary Services (PIPS), in collaboration with Parliamentary Development Unit of Senate Secretariat and Mustehkam Parlimaan organized a Pre-Budget Session on the State of Economy and Annual Budget 2024-25 for the Honorable Members of Senate of Pakistan on Tuesday, 11th June, 2024.
The session was attended by 98 participants including 29 Honorable Members of Senate of Pakistan. The session started with the recitation of the Holy Quran. Mr. Muhammad Rashid Mafzool Zaka, the Executive Director PIPS, moderated the event and briefly explained the breakdown of the sessions with the introduction of the worthy panelists. Mr. Syed Pervaiz Abbas, Team Lead MuP, welcomed the distinguished participants and gave brief introduction of the Mustehkam Parlimaan (MuP). He also stressed on the importance of understanding of budget and what it signifies for the country.
The first panelist, Mr. Muhammad Adnan Azeem, Director Budget Computerization Ministry of Finance, talked on “Reading and Analyzing the Budget Publications”. He explained his topic through a well-organized presentation. The session was very interactive as most of Honorable Senators participating in the discussion in order to have better understanding of the budget books. He also added the visual representation of facts and figures on the budget and taxes, like Gross Revenue, Tax Revenues, and other Revenues etc that made the session rich of information and interesting for the participants.
The second panelist, Mr. Muhammad Anwar, Former Secretary Senate Secretariat, presented brief power point presentation on the “Role of Senate in Budget Process”. He explained as how Honorable Senators can make the recommendations on the budget presented in the National Assembly. He also explained the responsibilities of the Finance Committee and the Hon. Chairman Senate in the Budget Process.
The third panelist, Honorable Senator Saleem Mandviwala, Former Finance Minister/ Former Deputy Chairman Senate, and Former Chairman Senate Standing Committee on Finance, conducted an interactive session with the honorable Members of Senate. He explained that Senate is a recommendatory body and can recommend different budgetary aspects to the National Assembly which always used to consider the recommendations made by the Senate. Many Honorable Senators asked questions as well as gave recommendations in order to improve budget making process as well as ways to enhance revenue generation in Pakistan.
The fourth panelist, Dr. Wasim Shahid Malik, Professor of Economics/PIPS Adjunct Faculty, explained the “State of Pakistan’s Economy: Challenges and Opportunities in the context of Annual Budget 2024-25”. He explained his narrative with the facts and figures of 2023-24 and the previous budgets. He gave historical context of Pakistan GDP Growth as well as comparison with other countries especially the regional economies like India and Bangladesh. He mentioned that GDP growth of Pakistan from 2007 till 2023 is lesser than that of India and Bangladesh. Lack of skill and education and lack of inclusivity are making Pakistan to fall behind neighboring countries in GDP growth thus economic prosperity. He gave recommendations on how to improve the numbers in budget and how to get out of IMF by having a workable business model. In the last but not the least, Mr. Aizaz Asif, Senior Advisor PFM and Public Policy MuP, gave the policy recommendations on fiscal oversight and continuous supervision of the finances and operations of the government departments through the standing committees. He suggested key considerations and recommendations for future to enhance the budget process. At the end, the Honorable Senators thanked the PIPS and MuP teams for organizing very interactive and informative session on the Economy and the Annual Budget. Mr. Muhammad Rizwan Manzoor, Incharge PIPS Budget and Economy Desk and Ms. Ayesha Tariq Khan, Assistant Director Research were the focal persons from PIPS side to organize the event and to coordinate with Senate and MuP teams.