KARACHI: Political leaders term budget anti-people
By Our Staff Reporter
KARACHI, June 16: Leaders of various political parties have said the federal budget for the 2002-2003 fiscal would result in multiplying the miseries of the common man.
The Secretary-General of the Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf, Meraj Mohammed Khan, alleged the budget had been prepared on the directions of the IMF and the World Bank.
He said highly insufficient financial allocations had been made for health, education, transport, housing and other social sectors which showed how the government ignored the common man.
The chief of the Jamaat-i-Islami Karachi, Dr Mairaj-ul-Huda Siddiqui, said the finance minister’s claim of achievements in the economic field after Sept 11 could not change the lot of the people who continued to groan under the burden of soaring prices.
He demanded withdrawal of taxes on essential commodities and checks on price rise.
The central information secretary of the National People’s Party, Syed Zia Abbas, said the budget would hit the salaried class the most.
The Pakistan People’s Party (SB) said the budget was in line with the budgets of the past quarter century. “Since the appointment of the late Mahbubul Haq, in the early 1980s, the minister of finance, successive governments have been accepting all the dictates of the IMF and other international lending organizations.”
Describing the claim of the finance minister that he had taken no instructions from the IMF and other lending institutions as ridiculous, the party, in a statement, said: “It is a good budget, perhaps the best possible for the ruling classes. It will make the rich richer, and the poor poorer.”
The said the budget had not announced any wage increase for industrial workers. It had not reduced the back-breaking burden of high cost of electricity, diesel, fertilizers and pesticides for farmers. There was no cut in the prices of medicines. The budget did not contain a single measure to reduce the wide disparities of income.
The chief of the Tehreek Minhaj-ul-Quran, Sindh, Allama Ghulam Dastgir Afghani, condemned the imposition of taxes on essential commodities in the new budget and called for providing relief to the people.
The president of the Pakistan Awami Tehreek, Sindh, Qazi Zahid Husain, said the government had once again multiplied the miseries of the poor.
Terming the budget a game of charts and numbers, the Anjuman Naujawanan-i- Islam’s chief, Tariq Mehboob, said due to the vogue of mini-budgets the federal budget had lost its importance. He said the imposition of GST on palm oil and fertilizers would further make life difficult for the common man.
The President of the Wholesale Chemists Association, Haj Hanif Blue, condemned the continuance of GST on medicines and termed it “the death of poor.” “If any human being falls sick, he will pay 15 per cent tax to the government to save his life.”
Sindh Taraqi Pasand Party central leader Gulzar Soomro termed the budget anti-people, alleging it had been prepared under the diktat of the World Bank, IMF, and other international lending institutions.
He said in the budget the welfare of the common man had been totally ignored.
“The way the defence and administrative budget has been increased is a manifestation of the military dictatorship in the country resulting in benefiting the generals and the rich of Punjab. But this budget will increase the poverty of those already poor, especially in Sindh,” he said.
“Distribution of resources among the provinces on the basis of the 1981 census is only to benefit Punjab,” he added.
APTUO: The All Pakistan Trade Unions Organization (APTUO) has said the imposition of GST on essential commodities would increase the hardships of the common man.
Leaders of the PML (Functional), Sindh, and the Sunni Tehrik also criticized the budget.
