HYDERABAD, June 16: There has been a mixed reaction to the national budget with the local business community terming it investment-friendly and political parties criticizing it as the anti-people budget.

A spokesman for the Sindh Taraqqi Pasand Party has said that allocation of funds for the construction of greater Thal canal, Saujwal dam and Dhok Pathan dam was tantamount to adding insult to the injuries of Sindh people.

He said that government had once again proved that it was only interested in protecting the interests of Punjab.

He said that the budget had provided subsidy of tens of millions of rupees to Punjab for wheat but not a penny had been given to Sindh in this regard.

The central and provincial office bearers of the Awami National Party, Qamoos Gul Khattak, Haji Asmatullah Khan, Sultan Khan Mandukhel, Haji Mohammad Idrees and Aurangzeb, in a joint statement, have termed the national budget a “document of starvation for the poor people and salaried class”.

They said that while incentives had been given to the capitalists, the poor people had been burdened with increase in prices of edible oil.

They said that investment could not be encouraged through incentives alone and peaceful conditions and political stability were basic requirement for investment, which did not exist in Pakistan.

The chairman of his faction of the Sindh National Party, Amir Bhanbhro, has termed the budget anti-people and said that while the prices of essential items had been increased, “death and suicide has been made cheap”.

However, the president of the Hyderabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Yousuf Suleman and former presidents Haji Yaqoob, Emaduddin Siddiqui, Mehmood Ahmed and Abdul Razzak Memon have termed the budget balanced and business-friendly.

They said that the incentives given in the budget to entrepreneurs would encourage investment and gear up business activities.

They said that reduction of import duty on 2,500 items would go a long way in the industrialization of the country.