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| June 7, 2005 | Tuesday | Rabi-us-Sani 29, 1426 |
Dar slams nominal raise in salaries
ISLAMABAD, June 6: The former finance minister and PML-N parliamentary leader, Senator Ishaq Dar, has slammed the government for making marginal increase in the salaries and pensions in the budget 2005-06. In his reaction to the budget here on Monday, Mr Dar said Nawaz Sharif had made 25 per cent increase in the salaries at a time when Pakistan was facing economic sanctions from the international community after the 1998 nuclear tests.
He said the government had proposed the cut in duties on luxury cars despite facing strong resistance from the opposition, because the later considered it a move to benefit the elite. A poor or middle class man if withdrew Rs25,000 from his account he would have to pay two withholding taxes.
Mr Dar said he would hold a press conference after reading the detailed figures of the budgetary documents.
Earlier, speaking at a press conference on Sunday, Ishaq Dar said passage of federal budget without announcement of the National Finance Commission (NFC) award was unconstitutional and tyranny against provinces.
He the government’s own figures revealed that inflation had witnessed 200 to 300 per cent rise, more than 160,000 people had become members of the unemployed club, while the trade deficit went up to $5 billion.
Mr Dar said the government borrowed $1.36 billion as foreign debt in the first nine months of the current financial year, while the figures of the foreign debt stood at $3 billion in the last three years.
He said all these disturbing figures were the result of myopic economic policy being implemented by President Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz.
In the last budget, the government had allocated Rs120 billion for the social sector development of which only Rs60 billion were spent during the first 10 months of the current fiscal year.
The money which came from selling Habib bank and other government organizations was never channelled to debt servicing but it was wasted on the renovation of Prime Minister’s House, procurement of bullet proof luxury cars and extra security to high ups.
He said Nawaz Sharif’s government had solved the NFC award issue in 1991 and 1997 besides resolving the 70-year-old water dispute among the provinces.
The former finance minister said Mr Aziz’s claims of good governance was meaningless because the World Bank in its May 2005 report had revealed that corruption was more rampant in Musharraf’s era than previous governments and so was the law and order situation and the weak writ of the state.
He said Rs43.29 billion had been allocated for the improvement of law and order situation last year, which had been reduced to only Rs15.63 billion in budget 2004-05.
Mr Dar said the reduction in the allocations for the improvement of law and order meant that the government was leaving its citizens at the mercy of criminals. He said inflation had impacted the poor disproportionately.
He said the government had to provide Rs70 billion to fulfil the losses suffered by Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) and Karachi Electric Supply Company (KSEC), under the army establishment.
He said there was no truth in the claims that per capita income had reached $736 because, such per capita income meant that a four-member family earned Rs15,000 to 20,000 and every Pakistani was living happily.
Mr Dar said the government was deceiving the masses when it claimed it had broken the “begging bowl” because it had received foreign debt amounting to $1.36 billion in the first nine months of the current financial year.
Our Staff Reporter Adds: MMA MNA Liaquat Baloch criticized the government for not providing any relief to the common man in the budget and termed it a proof of the regime’s failed economic policies.
Mr Baloch said the government had failed to provide protection to the investments of overseas Pakistanis. He said by increasing the price of fertilizers, the government had put more pressure on farmers. He said it seemed that the regime wanted to crush the growers. He said a president in uniform had badly damaged the country on all fronts.
The MMA leader predicted the government would present mini- budgets.
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