ISLAMABAD: The government on Wednesday tried to justify its budget figures in the National Assembly, while the opposition continued to allege that the numbers had been fudged.

In the main government speech of the day, Water and Power Minister Khawaja Mohammad Asif gave details of the power-generation measures taken by the current government, claiming that generation would increase to 31,000 megawatts once under-construction power projects came online by 2018.

Deriding the budget debate speech by Syed Khursheed Shah, he claimed that the leader of the opposition had not been briefed properly on the issue of power generation and said that the gap between demand and supply had been reduced from 7,000MW to 4,000MW since his party came to power.

The minister told the house that the 1,320MW Port Qasim project would be commissioned by 2018, Tarbela-4 by June 2017, the Chashma-3 andChashma-4 nuclear plant by June 2016, a 1,320MW energy project in Sahiwal by December 2017, Engro Thar and other Thar projects by June 2019 and Neelum-Jhelum hydropower and Golan Gol Chitral projects would be operational by August 2017.

`I`ve never seen a more incompetent opposition,` he mused, to roars of laughter from the treasury benches, before telling his counterparts to back up their criticism with logic and evidence.

`When I was in opposition, I not only criticised, but I took those cases to the Supreme Court and won,` he told the opposition.

He claimed that Balochistan, Punjab and Sindh owed Rs122 billion, Rs31bn and Rs 71bn, respectively, on account of unpaid tubewell bills.

In his response to the minister`s speech, PTI`s Shafgat Mehmood picked up where his colleague Asad Umar had left off a day earlier and began deconstructing the figures given in the Economic Survey of Pakistan.

He pointed out that the auditor general`s report, presented to Public Accounts Committee, had revealed embezzlement of Rs190bn in the payment of circular debt.

He alleged that fake figures were presented in the Economic Survey and that economists had rejected the growth figures presented by the government. External and domestic loans had increased significantly over the past three years, he lamented, adding that a big chunk of the budget was undocumented.

Then, talking about the problems of KhyberPakhtunkhwa, particularly the Hazara region, PTI MNA Engineer Hamidul Haq Khalil called upon Capt Mohammad Safdar to raise a voice for the Munda Dam and other stalled projects, since he was the prime minister`s son-in-law. Responding on a point of personal privilege, Capt Safdar noted that while he was an `honourable son-in-law, to the prime minister I am just another MNA`.

Fata MNA Shahjee Gul Afridi lamented the lack of a proper airport in Islamabad, and compared the new airport being built outside the capital to the Gwadar port project. He called upon the government to make the port operational by the end of this year, before Chabahar got underway. `Otherwise, I fear that Gwadar may become another Islamabad airport, which is of no use right now.

He urged the government to improve trade with neighbours such as Afghanistan, regretting that Palcistan had lost access to the Central Asian markets due to tensions in and with Kabul. `By not making friendly overtures, you are practically handing Afghanistan to India, China and Iran, he told the government.

`There is nothing in the PSDP for Fata,` he said and warned that ensuring development in the tribal areas was the only way to bring peace to the country and to the entire region.

He also lamented the lack of mega projects in his area and demanded tax incentives for investors who wanted to bring their money to Fata. `If you don`t offer an incentive, nobody is crazy enough to bring their money from Karachi to Fata,` he said.