‘Friendly’ criticism of budget in NA

ISLAMABAD: The government Monday faced soft criticism in the National Assembly on budgetary proposals from otherwise friendly opposition leader Raja Riaz.

There was a peaceful atmosphere in the National Assembly Monday as the opposition leader completed his inaugural speech on the budget in less than 45 minutes. The opposition leader was not satisfied with measures proposed by the incumbent government for the agriculture sector.

“The agriculture sector is the backbone of economy of a country like Pakistan but no concrete measures have been taken to give relief to farmers in the budget,” he said. He carefully criticised the government for not proposing satisfactory measures for promotion of agriculture, education, industrial and energy sectors.

He said despite the prime minister’s announcement that many parts of the country were facing power breakdowns of up to 12 years, saying the government needed to control the situation. Raja Riaz said that unfortunately the government of Shehbaz Sharif did not make sufficient budgetary allocations for the education sector.

Observing that the government had imposed a ban on import of luxury items but there was also need to control smuggling, saying that markets were filled with smuggled goods. The opposition leader was also critical of the incumbent government for ignoring the health sector, saying that quality treatment, free medicines and free laboratory tests were not being provided in government hospitals.

He also called for judicial reforms for provision of speedy justice to the people, adding that it was also a challenge for the government to bring about revolutionary reforms in the police department.

Ghous Bux Mehar of the Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA) while criticising budgetary proposals said that the budget was not people-friendly at all. He said if the present government was critical of policies of the last regime then why it was continuing the same, adding that the agriculture sector was facing serious threats and there would be shortage of food commodities in the years to come.

He said the government should come out of Imran phobia and start delivering for betterment of national economy and welfare of people. He called upon the government to waive duty on solar panels and give subsidy on fertilizers to give relief to the farmers community. Following two speeches on the federal budget, Deputy Speaker Muhammad Zahid Khan Durrani, who was presiding over proceedings, adjourned the house until Tuesday afternoon.