PPP, PML-N to hold talks on federal budget reservations today

ISLAMABAD: Coalition partners, the PPP and the PML-N, will hold talks over the reservations on the budget today, citing sources ARY News reported on Monday.

The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) will hold talks at the Prime Minister’s Secretariat at 5:00 of this evening, sources said.

PML-N’s Ishaq Dar, Ahsan Iqbal and Ayaz Sadiq and the PPP’s Syed Khursheed Shah, Naveed Qamar, Sherry Rehman and Shazia Mari will attend the negotiations, according to sources.

Sources said that Sindh’s Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah will likely to attend the talks of two major parties of Pakistan’s ruling alliance.

“The sides will discuss a separate allocation of funds in the federal budget for the flood affected persons of Sindh,” sources shared.

Bilawal Bhutto Zardari in a public meeting in Swat recently said that his party’s approval of the budget for the fiscal year 2023-24 depended on Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s decision to allocate funds for flood victims that were promised last year.

The PPP chairman expressed concern over absence of allocated funds for flood victims in the budget.

Federal Minister for Planning Ahsan Iqbal in his reply to the complaint of Bilawal Bhutto said that the allies were part of the federal cabinet that passed the budget. “Over 80 billion rupees have been allocated for support to the flood victims of Sindh in the Benazir Income Support Program,” he said.

The PPP have also grievance that the PML-N was giving ‘preference’ to JUI-F over the PPP. The PML-N is compensating JUI-F with the record development projects and the funds in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. PPP ministers and assistants are being neglected in KP, the sources claimed.