Debate on Budget 2021-22: Opposition gives tough time to govt

ISLAMABAD: The opposition members gave a tough time to the government while criticising the federal budget which they said had been prepared by the same old bureaucrats sitting in the Ministry of Finance, not by the government itself.

Marriyum Aurengzeb of the PMLN said the PTI government had forgotten its promises of giving 20 million jobs, construction of five million houses and not seeking the IMF programme. "They have forgotten their promises but we will not forget because it is the continuation of shutting down the RTS system to impose selected government and victimisation of opponents in the name of accountability," she said.

The PMLN leader pointed out that in the last two years, 10 months and seven days of the PTI regime, the prices of essential commodities increased by 16 percent, unemployment by 15 percent, electricity tariffs by 25 percent, while another five million people were rendered as jobless and 13,000 billion rupees record loans were procured.

She maintained that the opposition parties would not allow passage of the federal budget which was anti-poor and anti-growth. Marriyum Aurengzeb during her speech said Imran Khan was neither corrupt nor incompetent, rather his ‘Zakoota Jin’ had eaten up billions of rupees in sugar and atta scams and vaccination.

The House completed debate on the federal budget while Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin would deliver winding up speech today (Friday). Hina Rabbani Khar, while criticizing the federal budget, said it had been prepared by the same person who was finance secretary during the year 2002. “Should we congratulate the government over the budget which will result in the imposition of Rs383 billion dollars and giving no relief to the poor,” she said.

The PPP parliamentarian also challenged claims of the PTI government that Pakistan for the first time achieved a landmark of 25 billion dollars exports in a year. “It happened during last regime of PPP and this mark was achieved eight years back,” she said

The PMLN member Rana Tanveer Hussain said the government through the federal budget wanted to not only draw Rs119 billion exemptions, but it was also set to impose Rs383 billion additional taxes to burden people. He said the special assistants and advisers, who are job seekers in every regime, have prepared the budget documents.

Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Ali Muhammad Khan while defending fiscal policies, expressed the government’s commitment to make Pakistan a strong country. He said the economic indicators are improving with agriculture, industries and services sectors witnessing growth. Ali Muhammad Khan said that Imran Khan mainly focused on three points including bringing youth in the mainstream of politics, across the board accountability and launch of Ehsaas Programme, the biggest social programme in the country.

Dr Ramesh Kumar called upon the political parties to reach a consensus on the electoral reforms to ensure exercise of transparent elections. “If the 18th amendment in the Constitution was made unanimously then why consensus cannot be reached on the electoral reforms,” the PTI parliamentarian said.