Budget aims to ‘pamper and protect’ elite: opposition

LAHORE
Opposition parties including PPP, ANP and PTI have termed the federal budget 2015-16 a document meant to ‘pamper and protect’ elite and multiply the woes of the poor of the country.
Some of the leaders hailing from small provinces said that budget only prioritised Punjab and ignored other federating units which may add to the prevailing resentment against Islamabad and the rulers.
“There seems absolutely no planning to curb inflation which is the main concern of a layman, indirect taxes will only hurt the layman, the budget only protects the interests of elite but hurts the poor population” said Makhdum Shahabuddin, former Finance Minister in the cabinet of Benazir Bhutto in 90s while talking to The News. Makhdum Shahab, who also served as Federal Minister in the cabinet of Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani while commenting over the 2015-16 budget, stated that it showed no hopes for improvement of agriculture sector.
He said that Pakistan was an agro-based economy and major chunk of our population relied over this sector but unfortunately, there were no measures such as subsidy on fertilizer or reduction of tractor prices, the steps which could have directly benefited the poor growers. He said the PML-N government couldn’t save its skin while blaming ‘dharna’ staged by Imran last year, as the prime cause behind its failure in achieving the targets. The PPP central leader said that government had to deliver now. He said that growth rate couldn’t improve until the issue of power shortage was redressed and for that purpose.
Zahid Khan, former Senator and Secretary Information of Awami National Party while talking to The News said the budget presented by Finance Minister Ishaq Dar was only meant to facilitate the province of Prime Minister. He said the projects such as metro bus, green train etc were meant to serve the population of Punjab mainly but the real issues, such as allocation for agriculture, constructions of small dams had been ignored. He said not a single penny had been allocated for Munda Dam, a project which was of paramount importance for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the province which suffered a huge devastation in the hands of flood in 2010.
He said the rural areas of country, particularly those falling in KP had been ignored and nothing as needed had been done of agriculture.
Senator Taj Hyder, central leader of PPP said the government seemed to lack planning to bridge the gap between production and consumption which was widening rapidly. He said proper strategy needed to be evolved to benefit a common man rather than ‘pampering’ the elite.
The PTI Punjab MPAs including Dr Nausheen Hamid, Saadia Sohail and others said the budget would only widen the gap between the haves and the have-nots and there seemed no relief for a layman who had been directly hit by taxes.