Bilawal Zardari bashes 'PTIMF' budget as a tsunami for the poor
Last updated on: 13 June,2020 11:18 pm
Bilawal Zardari bashes 'PTIMF' budget as a tsunami for the poor
KARACHI (Dunya News) - Chairman Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari has said that PTIMF budget was a tusnami for the economy, agriculture and health sectors, which may unleash a wave of poverty and famine-like conditions in the country if not resisted by the entire nation.
Addressing a meeting of PPP’s Parliamentarians from both Senate and National Assembly at Zardari House, Islamabad, Bilawal Bhutto said that the policies of the selected PTI government were akin to taking revenge on the people for questioning its legitimacy , as its federal budget exercise exposed both its callousness and indifference to the urgent needs of the people at such a delicate time for both lives and livelihoods.
The PPP Chairman stated that it is obvious that budget proposals have ignored the COVID-19 pandemic, locust attacks and the well-being of healthcare professionals, the needs of the salaried class, pensioners and poverty-ridden people.
“This budget should have given incentives to pensioners to stay home but by not increasing their pensions, or being sensitive to the real needs of the poor it claims to champion, it has tried to compel them to come out in a pandemic when the world is encouraging Stay Home-Stay Safe policy for all, especially the elderly.”
Bilawal Bhutto repeated that the PTIMF budget was actually for providing comfort to a small comprador elite, which lacks any structural relief plan for the poor and vulnerable communities. “PPP has already rejected the anti-poor budget and would vehemently oppose it at all elected forums also,” he added.
Senator Sherry Rehman, Syed Naveed Qamar, Nawab Yousuf Talpur, Ch Manzoor and others also spoke on the budgetary proposals and described increase in levies on petroleum instead of GSP as a tool to deprive the provinces of their divisible pool share. They said this was in fact an anti-agriculture budget, the source of livelihood for almost 70% of Pakistanis. They also said that the government has failed to harvest a unique opportunity to invest in human security, by changing priorities like the rest of the world on clear additions on spending on the critically depleted health sector.