ISLAMABAD: Hinting at moving court against the ‘unconstitutional’ federal budget, the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) on Friday warned that the country could face a Sri Lanka-like situation after surge in unemployment and industry closure as its fallout and said the only solution to steer Pakistan out of the current economic crisis is early election.

Lashing out at the government for imposing ‘super tax’ on large-scale industries, PTI Central Secretary General Asad Umar told a presser that the government should hold a 14-day mandatory budgetary debate in Senate or else this budget would be unconstitutional and could be challenged in the court of law.

He said the ‘super tax’ would prove counterproductive, as such measures would rattle the economy. Being levied on the sectors that generate jobs, it would be a huge blow to the growing industries, he added.

Mr Umar quoted Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif in his speech as claiming that the country was going bankrupt, but actually Imran Khan’s government had “worked hard to increase foreign exchange reserves” in three and a half years. At the end of previous PML-N government, the foreign exchange reserves were $9. 97 billion, which surged by about $7bn to $16.4bn by the day the no-confidence motion was tabled to topple the Imran government, he said.

Tarin sees early election as the only answer to economic crisis

He blamed the PML-N government for decline in foreign reserves and bringing the country to the brink of default. “In our time, the country’s growth rate had reached 6pc, it was not bankruptcy, as industries, agriculture, exports and remittances were booming,” he insisted.

The PTI leader said the PML-N government presented the ‘real budget’ on Friday, as the government made the announcement about the tax after 14 days, bypassing the Senate in sheer violation of the constitutional rights. He alleged the “imported” government announced hundreds of billions of more taxes before presenting its recommendations to the Senate.

Mr Umar said Mr Sharif made the budget-related announcements outside the National Assembly, which was unprecedented, because the premier did not have the courage to announce the new taxes on the floor of the house. “On one side they ask the people to cut expenditure and tea consumption, on the other side they have provided relief to themselves by allowing crores of rupees for useless work in PM House,” he maintained.

He said the government initially increased input costs by massive increase in fuel, electricity and gas prices and then raised financing costs with a sharp increase in interest rates. He said: “Now heavy additional taxation is the third assault on the productive sectors of the economy.” The ‘incompetent, corrupt government’ increased the price of diesel by Rs120 and petrol by Rs84, electricity by 45 per cent and gas by 47pc, while prices of flour, pulses, and other items were skyrocketing, he said.

The PTI leader expressed concern that after imposition of heavy taxes, it was being claimed that the agreement would be reached “if the IMF does not make any new demands”. He said the ‘incompetent’ cabinet was clueless and did not understand what to do with the country and its people, as inflation reached 27.8pc last week and might surge past 30pc.

He said the stock market crashed when PM Sharif delivered the speech.

According to a statement issued by the PTI Central Secretariat, Islamabad, former finance minister Shaukat Tarin during a press conference in Karachi said the budget presented by finance minister Miftah Ismail was a “Khooni” budget, loaded with a number of taxes.

After this budget, industry will see closure while unemployment will be increased. The ex-minister said the only one solution to steer the country out of the current economic crisis was an early election. If early election was not held, the country could face Lanka-like situation, he warned.

Published in Dawn, June 25th, 2022