Opposition parties reject Sindh budget

By Our Correspondent
June 11, 2023

Contrary to the Pakistan Peoples Party’s (PPP) claims that it had presented a people-friendly budget, various political parties have termed the Sindh budget presented on Saturday for the fiscal year 2023-24 a traditional budget saying that it will not result in relief to the people facing unprecedented inflation.

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Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) Senior Deputy Dr Farooq Sattar said the Sindh government had presented a traditional budget and presented figures to deceive the people.

He said the MQM-P would issue a detailed statement after carefully examining the budget documents.

He said the provincial government had not shown by how much the income of landlords and capitalists had increased during the last 15 years of the Pakistan Peoples Party’s rule in the province.

He also asked how much and at what rate the landlord and capitalist class had paid taxes during the 15 years.

He lamented that the Sindh government had not allocated enough for primary education. If the foundation was not strong, spending on higher education would not yield better results, he remarked.

Muhajir Qaumi Movement-Haqiqi Chairman Afaq Ahmed while addressing a meeting of the Sindh Urban Graduate Forum said the rulers were not concerned about the public's hardships.

He said the ruling class had decided to burden the people with taxes in the budget and fulfil all of the IMF's conditions by increasing electricity and gas prices.

Sunni Tehreek Pakistan Chairman Muhammad Sarwat Ijaz Qadri in a statement said that the claims of giving relief to the poor in the budget were far-fetched. People with the power of vote in the elections would hold those accountable who had pushed the country into darkness, he added.

Qadri said the Sunni Tehreek would continue its struggle for solving the people’s problems and end poverty. “We will continue to raise concern over poverty,” he asserted.

Majlis Wahdat-e-Muslimeen Pakistan leader Syed Ali Hussain Naqvi said the budget presented by the Sindh government would fail to provide relief to the people. He termed the provincial budget a maze of confusion. Double taxes and super taxes had been imposed and there was no policy in the provincial budget for public relief, he remarked.

He said the provincial government had not made any efforts to increase the tax net and instead burdened the poor class with additional taxes.

The common people had been deprived of basic amenities and faced new crises every day, but the government had not taken any measures to control inflation that would benefit the common people, he said.

He also criticised what he called flawed agricultural policies that had led to an increase in the prices of food commodities, including wheat.

Interestingly, the Jamaat-e-Islami, which has recently turned very aggressive against the Sindh government over the mayoral elections, did not issue any statement regarding the provincial budget.

When The News contacted the Karachi JI’s media wing, it said the party’s central leadership would later comment on the Sindh budget.

The Grand Democratic Alliance and Pakistani Tehreek-e-Insaf also did not issue any statement on the provincial budget.

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