Daily Times

The opposition parties on Friday announced to work together and give a ‘tough time’ to the government, vowing to not let the budget sail through in the National Assembly.

Right after announcement of budget by the government, Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari termed it ‘anti-poor’ and said that the opposition would not let it pass from the National Assembly.

Addressing a press conference outside the Parliament House along with Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President Shahbaz Sharif and other key opposition members, Bilawal said that the people who might have been listening to Minister for Finance Shaukat Tarin as he unveiled the government’s proposals, must have been thinking that this is some other country’s budget. He said that it did not sound at all like the budget Pakistan needs with its ‘historic inflation, unemployment, and poverty’, adding that the prime minister and finance minister’s claims of economic growth are baseless in such a situation.

The PPP chairman said the finance ministers’ claims were akin to ‘rubbing salt in the wounds’ of the Pakistanis who are suffering due to the government’s futile policies.

“All differences among the opposition parties aside, we will collectively respond to this selected and incompetent government’s budget. I reiterate my promise that all of PPP’s MNAs will entrust their votes to opposition leader Shahbaz Sharif to use against this government’s budget,” he added. Shahbaz Sharif said the opposition would join hands and give a tough time to the government during the budget session and will expose their fudged figures. “When poor people are dying of hunger, unemployment and inflation are skyrocketing, how can they (the government) claim that the country is witnessing economic growth?” the opposition leader asked. When asked about the opposition strategy about no-confidence motion against the NA deputy speaker submitted a day earlier, Shahbaz Sharif said that the opposition parties would devise a joint strategy for the no-confidence motion. PML-N leader Ahsan Iqbal slammed the government’s proposal to increase the income of salaried individuals by 10 percent and called the move the ‘worst joke’. “A 10 percent increase in the salaries after record inflation is the worst joke made by the government with them,” he said. “We reject this. At least a 20% increase should be given,” he added.