Government slammed for failing to check price hike

Speakers at a pre-budget seminar organised by the women's wing of the Pakistan Peoples' Party (PPP) held at a local hotel on Monday criticised the government for its failure to check price increase of all daily use articles. V.A. Jafri, former advisor on finance and a retired bureaucrat, said poor financial planning and purely anti-people policies had eaten away savings of the poor.
He said this phenomenon had been so intensely supported by the government that many of the best minds that could have been helpful in proper pro-people financial planning could not contribute their share of good work. He said it would be better if the government revised its policy on pricing, effect savings and revise its priorities for spending.
Sindh PPP president Qaim Ali Shah said the budget should be aimed at facilitating investment, job creation and price control.
He said it was the responsibility of the government to apply prudent financial and monetary policies and control wasteful expenditure.
He criticised defence spending and suggested rationalising it.
Opposition leader in the Sindh assembly Nisar Khuhro said federal and provincial budgets would not bring any relief to the poor and there would be increase in prices, poverty and unemployment in the next year as well.
He said there were a number of areas that should have been discussed at the seminar but these three factors were the real test of the economy of a country.
"Prices, poverty and unemployment show complete insensitivity of the government toward the condition of the poor."
He said POL product was one of the commodities that hit hard 145 million people of Pakistan. Severity of its effects may be different for different economic groups but it was there.
He said pro-rich policies of the government had widened the gap between the rich and the poor.
Khuhro proposed that in the absence of NFC award, the Sindh government should restrict its planning to the bare minimum and cut short its current expenditure. "The savings should be diverted toward development needs."
Sindh PPP (women's wing) deputy information secretary Suraiya Jatoi, who had organised the seminar, introduced the subject and said time for budget making did not mean a time for criticising the government policies but it was the right occasion to remind the government of its responsibilities and point out its drawbacks that had been adversely affecting 98 percent low-income people of the country.
Other speakers included Qamaruzzaman Shah, Taj Haider and Qaisar Bengali.
The seminar was largely attended by leading economists, PPP activists and journalists.