PPP rejects govt’s corona relief package

MULTAN: The PPP on Monday rejected the government’s corona relief package and said that no exclusive relief was given to the masses.

Talking to journalists here, PPP central finance secretary Barrister Haidar Zaman Qureshi said that the corona package was just eyewash. The PTI government did not allocate an exclusive amount for the relief and re-advertised already earmarked shares of budget, which had been pending to release since the PTI came into power, he added.

He alleged that the government was labeling the Benazir Income Support Program as the Ehsaas Programme. The PTI had announced to distribute Rs 150.8 billion among the deserving families affected by lockdown, he continued. However, the fact was that the deserving families registered under the BISP had been waiting for the release of their pending installments since the PTI had come into power, he claimed. He alleged that the government had suspended the release of installments to the BISP beneficiaries.

Barrister Haidar Zaman said that the government saved Rs 150 billion from international oil prices reduction but no relief was given to the masses in oil prices. Similarly, he added, no relief was given to electricity and gas consumers and their bills were just deferred for one month instead of settled. The consumers would have to pay their deferred bills in coming months, he told. The allocation of Rs 6.200 billion for jobless people was eyewash, he alleged. He said that PM Imran Khan announced allocating a huge amount for utility stores to provide cheap products to the public, however, the announcement was completely fake and fabricated as the utility stores in the country had recorded Rs 26 billion sale in 2019. When the utility stores earning Rs 26 billion businesses in a year then how the government could allocate Rs 50 billion, he questioned.