CHARSADDA: Pakistan Mazdoor Kisan Party central chairman Afzal Shah Khamosh on Tuesday said his party rejected the “anti-people” federal budget for the next fiscal year.

He announced support for the government employees’ protest and sit-in in Islamabad, declaring it a bold move against the government’s anti-people policies, especially “economic attacks on the working class.”

“The finance minister presented a budget that will break the backs of millions of workers in the country,” he said in a statement.

Mr Khamosh said the increase in the salaries and pensions of workers, teachers, health workers and government employees in proportion to the rate of inflation was not only their legitimate right but also a basic demand of class justice.

He, however, said the government had made a mockery of them by increasing their salaries by 10 per cent only.

The PMKP chief complained that the elite class, which included the bureaucracy, judiciary, parliament and military leadership, had got their salaries “silently” increased by 634 per cent,

“The Senate chairman is withdrawing Rs2 million per month, the speaker of the National Assembly Rs1.3 million and Supreme Court judges and NAB chairman Rs1.7 million each, and they’re receiving free electricity, petrol, government vehicles, residences and other benefits,” he said.

Mr Khamosh said all those resources were collected from taxes paid by the poor people before being given away to a certain class.

He said when government employees demanded a pay raise, the state machinery and economists united against them.

“The working class will uproot this oppressive system with its revolutionary power,” he said.

The PMKP chief said the day was not far when the assembly of workers would replace the houses and palaces.

He said when the looted wealth returned to the people, every penny of the budget would be spent on basic rights like education, health, employment and housing.

“Accountability for 77 years of looting by the ruling elite is mandatory. We stand by this historic struggle of government employees,” he said.

Mr Khamosh urged revolutionary forces, trade unions, peasant organisations and popular movements to transform their protest into a broader class struggle.

Published in Dawn, June 11th, 2025