Chaudhry Parvez Elahi, the Muslim League-Quaid-e-Azam leader, as his custom, has begun questioning Monday's Punjab budget by calling it a sheer "wangling claim," saying funds being set aside for agriculture, education and health "will also be eaten up by the Metro Orange Line project." "Despite imposition of taxes in every sector, the historical deficit of Rs 114 billion is ample proof of the inefficiency and failure of the present rulers in the Punjab," the veteran politician, and textile industrialist, told a news conference at his Gulberg home on Wednesday.
Those also along with him party's Members of the Punjab Assembly Amir Sultan Cheema, Vickas Hassan Mokal and Ahmad Shah Khagga. The party bigwig, who is a staunch vocalist of political philosophy of enlightened moderation, said, "In the new budget, Rs 124 billion will be paid as interest whereas, despite payment of loans during my tenure, every budget was tax free and surplus."
He then talked about the Punjab's total debt being estimated at Rs 620 billion. "While the amount of interest on payment of loans annually has crossed Rs 124 billion, there was no loan on the Punjab during our tenure and even the 2007 budget was surplus of Rs 100 billion," he claimed. "Now, all, including farmers, traders and industrialists, are worried about the new budget because this will bring a flood of unemployment and price hike.
During our tenure, development funds utilisation was 98 percent, whereas they have only used 50 percent of development budget." He was also critical of the social sector, claiming it had never been the Punjab government's priority and of "Jangla" (a term he used to refer to metro buses) buses in Lahore and Rawalpindi.