After a weeklong ruckus, Opposition Leader in National Assembly Shahbaz Sharif on Wednesday said that the budget 2019-20 only brought a message of disappointment for masses as it is "IMF-led and IMF-dictated."
In his about four-hour long speech on the budget 2019-20, he rejected the federal budget, calling on the federal government to withdraw it. "The budget is 'anti-people' as it was dictated by the IMF (International Monetary Fund)," he said.
He touched upon a number of topics, including PML-N government's performance, state of economy, International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan, foreign debt, exchange rate of the US dollar and the budget.
Speaking on a point of order, PPP Chairperson Bilawal Bhutto Zardari once again demanded Speaker Asad Qaiser issue the production orders for PPP Co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari, PML-N's Saad Rafique, and North Waziristan MNAs Ali Wazir and Mohsin Dawar.
Shahbaz backed Bilawal's demand for the production orders of the four MNAs, saying he agreed with Bilawal that MNAs including Zardari should be issued production orders.
"They have received votes from the people to represent their demands. You are the custodian of this House, you have a big responsibility to ensure their presence under the powers given to you so that they are able to come here and represent their constituencies," said the opposition leader while addressing NA Speaker Asad Qaiser.
"We completely reject this budget as it's a sword of torture that is slitting the throat of the average man...if they were to make a people's budget, there were five things that were important: employment opportunities, raising gross domestic product (GDP), increasing exports and trade, further reducing prices, and providing social and economic justice."
The opposition leader said that at the end of the financial year, the government had Rs 500 billion hole in their revenue target. "Imran Khan used to say PML-N government imposes indirect taxes. What happened today? The 'masters of U-turn' in this budget have imposed 70 per cent indirect taxes," he added.
"The people who had come to create Naya (new) Pakistan and to turn Pakistan into a heaven have taken it towards economic hell through these bad steps," he declared.
Shahbaz said that the current government had presented two mini-budgets in the outgoing financial year, following which they went to the IMF "and said they can't fulfil their targets and asked for exemptions."
"There is still time for Prime Minister Imran Khan to admit that they [PTI] made mistakes and apologise," he said, adding that the opposition may give him an allowance "to take a U-turn" on the budget.
Sharif said that there were conditions for this, which he presented on behalf of the opposition: "The "anti-people" budget should immediately be taken back and a budget taking into account the needs of people be presented. Minimum wage be raised to Rs 20,000 per month. A minimum 50 per cent increase in the salaries of officers up to grade-16. Reintroduce tax exemption for those who earn a salary of Rs 100,000 per month, which had been introduced by PML-N. Electricity and gas prices should be brought back to their May 21, 2018 position. Tax on ghee be taken back. Health and education budget allocation be increased and free healthcare treatment provided during PML-N government be expanded to all of Pakistan. The government should immediately take notice of the withdrawal of zero-rated facility for some industries."
He also said that the government lost a golden opportunity of signing a 'charter of economy' in collaboration with opposition parties to boost the economy, to which NA Speaker said that the offer is still there and he would play his due role to materialise it.
Responding to Shahbaz's speech, Federal Minister for Power Omar Ayub said that flaws that are being highlighted by the PML-N are the result of their own policies. He accused the PML-N of drafting hasty policies just to secure votes.
"They (PML-N) knew elections were approaching and the vehicle was out of their control. So they took decisions that led to increase in deficit."
He recalled that both PPP and PML-N approached the IMF seven and three times, respectively.
"In 1988, foreign debt amounted to $13 billion. In 1999, [the debt was] around $39 billion. In 2008, the debt increased to $41 billion. In 2018, these debts increased from $41 billion to $91 billion," he said.
"They mortgaged our country...they should tell us the reason [for accumulating debts] because we had to allocate Rs 3,000 billion [in the proposed budget] solely for the payment of the interests of those loans," he added.
"This two-party system has wreaked havoc on our country," Ayub said, referring to the tenures of PPP and PML-N. He said that the PTI government is "gradually" paying off the loans borrowed by previous governments.
He rubbished the PML-N claims that economy was performing better during its era, saying that the party had sustained the economy artificially by "printing additional notes and borrowing loans." He also alleged that Foreign Direct Investment was stagnant.
Earlier, during his speech Shahbaz said: "In 2013, the genuine votes of the people elected the PML-N government. We had to face tremendous challenges immediately. During [former dictator] General Pervez Musharraf's time, there was a lot of load-shedding.
"When we were given the responsibility, there were days when there was no electricity for 20 hours a day at a time. This was a big challenge that I, not through a slip of tongue, had said that we will try to solve in six months [...] God helped us.
"The then opposition of PTI climbed on containers for seven months. They attempted to damage the economy; these were efforts to undermine our work. But man proposes and God disposes."
Sharif then spoke about Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit to Pakistan in 2014, saying: "The country won't forget when Xi Jinping was visiting, PTI leaders were requested to vacate the D-Chowk for only three days - but they said 'no' and, as a result, the Chinese president's visit was postponed. For seven months the visit was postponed, and somewhere around May 2015, the agreements were inked."
He said: "Afghanistan is our brother and we want good relationship with them, but this is all about economic competition. The Afghan currency is now stronger than Pakistan's. Bangladesh's per capita income is ahead of us. Fifteen to twenty years ago, we used to have a healthy competition with India. We were ahead of India in textile; in some sectors, we were ahead," he said, adding, albeit obliquely, that there exists no competition between India and Pakistan insofar the two countries' economies are concerned.
Speaking about Prime Minister Imran Khan's late-night address to the nation on June 11, in which the Premier vowed to go after the "thieves who left the country badly in debt," Sharif said that he had gone to sleep when the address started as he's an "early bird."
The opposition leader said the commission would also have to look into the Musharraf era debt and the ones "they [PTI] took in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa."
Referring to the Premier's comments, Sharif said that Imran Khan does not have the authority to give an NRO, terming it "notorious relief order."
"I want to ask, for the last time, because Imran Khan has repeatedly spoken about refusing 'NRO', who asked for it? Who is the witness? Tell the country, when and who asked him [PM Imran] for an NRO? Is there any witness? The country is very worried; Imran Khan says something but doesn't give any evidence. I am saying this for the last time on the floor of the House: please tell this country who asked for an NRO, when did they ask and who is the witness?" said Sharif. MNAs Maulana Abdul Akbar Chitrali of MMA, Sher Akbar Khan of PTI, Saad Waseem Sheikh of PML-N and others also spoke on the budget.
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