ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) will vote for the Budget-2024-25 to prevent instability in the country.

“Despite certain reservations, we have decided to vote for the finance bill. If we do not vote for the budget, it would amount to dismantling the government and paving the way for instability in the country which the PPP does not want,” PPP senior leaders, Shazia Marri and Syed Naveed Qamar expressed these views in a news conference after parliamentary party meeting chaired by PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari on Tuesday.

PPP Secretary Information Shazia Marri said that members had expressed concerns about issues of their constituencies in previous meetings.

She said that the party leadership engaged the government to address these issues. She said that the PPP started engaging the government on those reservations.

“The party leadership listened to the difficulties faced by the members who are responsible for their constituencies and conveyed the grievances of their people,” Naveed Qamar said.

He said that during the government formation after the election, an agreement took place between the PPP and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz. “The agreement entailed that the PPP would vote for the PML-N’s candidate for prime ministership. The agreement between these two parties comprised 25 points. While some of the points were implemented, there was ambiguity regarding others. The two parties held several rounds of negotiations attended by the Prime Minister and Ishaq Dar on some occasions. We had reservations on the PSDP-2024-25,” he said.

“In today’s Parliamentary Party meeting, it was decided to vote for the finance bill despite certain reservations. The government now has numbers and this budget will go through,” he said.

Naveed Qamar said that we are anticipating that the points raised by Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari on the floor of the Assembly will be accepted by the government. “We will continue our discussion with the government,” he said.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024