Opposition parties reject federal budget

ISLAMABAD: Terming the federal budget 2020-21 ‘people’s enemy’, two major opposition parties, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), have rejected it, ARY News reported.

Talking to journalists, PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif said that the targets set in the budget are unrealistic, adding that it will further increase inflation and unemployment in the country.

The PML-N leader said that for the first time in 68 years, the country’s GDP has plunged to negative and predicted that the government will present a mini budget ahead of next meeting with the IMF.

He lashed out at the government for not increasing pensions and salaries of the government employees in the budget.

Reacting to the budget, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) senior leader Sherry Rehman declared the federal budget ’non-transparent’, adding, “For the first time in history, the demand for a grant was not provided to the lawmakers- meaning the actual budget was not shared.”

She said that IMF has prepared that budget and added that it will multiply the problems of the masses.

Earlier today, Minister for Industries Hammad Azhar had presented the much-anticipated budget for the fiscal year 2021-2022 in National Assembly.

The minister had explained in detail, his government’s economic goals and why a certain allocation was made to a particular sector while presenting the budget with a total outlay of Rs7.13 trillion. The major allocations were Rs25.5 billion for health, Rs83.3 billion for education and Rs1.3 trillion for defence.

The minister had started his speech by saying that Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government’s main goal was to revive the dwindling economy by eliminating corruption, setting development goals aimed at benefiting the poor people of the country.