Khattak challenges opposition on poverty in KP

ISLAMABAD: Challenging the opposition’s claims of increase in the poverty rate, Defence Minister Pervaiz Khattak Monday said the people were instead getting well-off.

Taking part in the budget debate in the National Assembly, he said the opposition parties were just staging a drama of increase in poverty. “There is no poor at least in my province,” said Khattak who hails from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

He also challenged the opposition to find out any poor person in his province saying there were no more slums at least in his village as they were well-off now and had cars and motorcycles. He also defended establishment of ‘Langar Khanas’ across the country.

One should be worried about the workers, as they have no place to sleep and nothing to eat, he said, causing the opposition members to break into laughter. He came up with a notion as to how a country could be run if there was no price hike.

“If there is no price hike, nobody will establish industry or run a business,” he said. The minister said every citizen in the province having national identity card had ‘Sehat Insaf Card’ with access to free medical treatment. He said everybody in the country wanted government job because they did not want to work and work hard.

He challenged the opposition parties that the PTI would once again emerge victorious in the center and the KP province in the future general elections owing to its ‘performance’. He also challenged the Opposition Leader in the National Assembly Shehbaz Sharif to compare performance of his government in the Punjab with the then KP government from 2013 to 2018 in education, health and police reforms.

Instead of talking about the incumbent government’s economic policies, Khattak focused his speech on his performance as the KP chief minister. “I challenge Shehbaz Sharif to compare his 20 years as chief minister with my five years as the KP chief minister,” he said.

Former prime minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf said the government was formulating fiscal policies and executing legislation in this connection under the dictation of IMF.

He said the government’s decision to give arrest powers to the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) would harass tax-payers. He said the government had also failed in ensuring food security where over 60 percent population resided in rural areas.

Criticizing the government for bulldozing the legislative business, he said the Election Commission of Pakistan had also pointed out 13 clauses which clashed with the Constitution. “The government should not show a stubborn attitude towards the issue to withdraw the controversial clauses,” he said, asking the government to hold consultations.