CHARSADDA, June 2: Opposition parties, civil society organisations and workers in Charsadda rejected the federal budget 2012-13 as ‘anti-people’, while the ruling Pakistan People’s Party and Awami National Party expressed satisfaction with the budgetary announcements for the next fiscal.
JUI district chief and former MNA Maulana Gohar Shah told reporters that the budget had nothing to offer to the poverty-stricken people.
He said 20 per cent pay raise couldn’t help government employees grapple with high inflationary trends.
“The budget totally ignored the common man,” he said, demanding provision of subsidy on consumer goods and end to energy crisis.
Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf (PTI) leaders, including former federal minister Nisar Mohammad Khan and Taj Mohammad Khan declared the budget ‘jugglery of words’ and said he found nothing for commoners in it.
He said energy crisis had emerged as a serious issue and therefore, the government should focus its resources on resolving it without delay to the benefit of commoners.
PML-N district president Hamayun Kakakhel rejected the budget as a ‘fraud’ and said the people didn’t expect relief from the corrupt rulers.
He flayed allocation of huge funds for the Presidency and the Prime Minister’s House in the budget and said the people’s welfare wasn’t possible until the ‘gang of thieves’ stayed in power.
Jamaat-i-Islami district chief Riaz Khan declared the budget anti-poor and said the government had been deceiving poor people by making false promises for the last four years.
PPP-Sherpao district president and MPA Mohammad Ali Khan Mohmand said the nation had great expectations from the government in its last budget but they all remained unfulfilled.
“No relief has been given to common man in the budget, which is also devoid of solution to high inflation and energy crisis,” he said.
Pakistan Mazdoor Kisan Party central president Afzal Shah Khamosh, too, rejected the budget, saying it provided no relief to growers and labourers.
“Except for corruption, loadshedding, high inflation, unemployment and lawlessness, the current government has given nothing to the people,” he said.
Noted social worker Mohammad Hussain Shah declared the federal budget ‘jugglery of words’ and said every fortnight, a budget was being unveiled in the shape of the announcement of higher fuel prices.
He said government employees and pensioners had expected that ad hoc relief given to them in the last budget would be regularised, but their expectations remained unfulfilled.
All Government Employees Coordination Council president Haji Hidayatullah said the budget deceived government employees as the Pay and Pension Commission’s recommendation for 65 per cent increase in salary and pension was ignored by the government.He demanded that the billions of rupees given to Benazir Income Support Programme in the next fiscal be used for the relief of government employees.
Muttahida Shopkeepers Federation president Hakeemullah Fauzi, too, rejected the budget, saying it had no incentive for traders. He said traders were the backbone of national economy but they were completely ignored by budget makers.
However, ANP district president Haji Khalid Khan, PPP district president Naeem Khan Omarzai and PPP tehsil president Temur Khan Khattak declared the budget balanced.
They said Rs70 billion funding to BISP would help alleviate poverty to a great extent. They praised the federal government for not imposing new taxes and ‘reasonably’ increasing the salary of government employees in the next fiscal.