Bilawal terms 2021-22 budget an 'economic attack on Pakistanis'

• PTI will not be permitted to "play with the nation’s future", says Bilawal.
• PM Imran Khan "deaf, dumb, and blind" to the plight of the average citizen, he says.
• "[PM] has exposed his anti-people agenda with the new budget."

KARACHI: PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Saturday condemned the budget proposed by the federal government a day earlier, calling it an "economic attack on Pakistanis".

The PPP chairman, in a statement issued from Media Cell Bilawal House, said PTI would not be permitted to "play with the nation’s future", vowing his party would not allow Prime Minister Imran Khan "to conduct an economic massacre of the people."

Reiterating PM Imran Khan was "deaf, dumb, and blind" to the plight of the average citizen, he said: "The year might have changed, but the conditions of the people remain the same. A poor man’s house is still being deprived of necessities."

Condemning PM Imran Khan for his "lack of empathy towards the underprivileged", Bilawal said through the new budget, the premier had made his "enmity" towards the poor people clear.

"He has exposed his anti-people agenda with the new budget," he said.

The PPP chairman said that while the government was busy presenting "false facts" through the Economic Survey 2020-21 and claiming that the nation is flourishing, government employees protested against inflation outside the Parliament.

“People are now retaliating because they are aware of the puppet prime minister’s empty promises,” he said, adding: "They know it is Imran Khan’s habit to talk big and do nothing. He is incompetent and has completely failed to provide relief to the common man."

Highlighting how the facts tell another story, Bilawal said that an anti-people budget "was expected" from the PTI government.

“If the inflation rate, unemployment, and poverty figures have been historic during Imran Khan’s tenure, how can the budget be public [friendly]?” he questioned.

Opposition decides to give govt 'tough time'

A day earlier, PML-N President Shahbaz Sharif and PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said the Opposition would work together and give a tough time to the government, vowing to not let the budget sail through in the National Assembly.

Bilawal, speaking to the media alongside Shahbaz after the parliament's budget session, had said 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".

Bilawal said it did not sound at all like the budget Pakistan needs, with its "historic inflation, unemployment, and poverty".

"The prime minister and finance minister's claims of economic growth are baseless amid 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 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 said.

Meanwhile, Shahbaz 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 claim that the country is witnessing economic growth?" the Opposition leader asked.

Responding to a question, Shahbaz said that the Opposition parties would devise a joint strategy for the no-confidence motion that was moved against NA Deputy Speaker Qasim Suri a day earlier.

'We should not play politics with the poor'

Meanwhile, addressing the post-budget press conference in Islamabad today, Tarin said the government had presented a total growth budget, and their challenge is to stabilise growth.

The finance minister said that the poor in the country had not received loans and training for the last 70 years.

He said loans would be given from commercial banks to small welfare banks and, in the first phase, four million people will be targeted.

The finance minister announced plans to provide employment and give Rs150,000 to small farmers while also giving lists of small farmers and the poor to banks.

Loans up to Rs2 million will be given for building a house and loans to poor farmers will go up to Rs500,000, he said.

Pakistan has become a food deficient country and we are now importing what we used to export, he said, adding that the country is importing pulses, wheat, and sugar.

"We did not pay attention to our crops, but now we will pay attention to it," he assured.

"We should not play politics with the poor," he said, adding that banks have the resources and the government does not have fiscal space.

"Commercial banks are not near the homes of the poor, they are in big cities."