ISLAMABAD, June 22: The Youth Parliament on third day of its ongoing session on Friday had a briefing about budgetary flaws and proposed reforms from Ishaq Dar, the opposition leader in the Senate.      

Senator Dar shared his analysis of the economy with the YPP and proposed steps to achieve turnaround.

At the outset, he criticised the PPP Government for borrowing money from domestic and foreign sources without a credible economic recovery plan as Pakistan has the lowest domestic saving of 5.8 per cent compared to the 30-40 per cent of the western countries.

As a result, 60 paisas are being spent on debt-servicing which is not sustainable, he said adding reducing deficit and moving towards self-reliance are the only options for better economic future.

He explained with statistics that the government had spent more than Rs457 billion over and above the amount allocated by the Parliament in the previous budget. Such supplementary spending levels are unacceptable and must be regulated, he said and added Pakistan could become a self-sustaining country only if the government cut its unnecessary expenses.

He opposed allocation of discretionary funds even for the prime minister.

He advocated implementation of agriculture tax by provinces which at the moment are very low and need to be officially planned and imposed.

Mr Dar also dwelt at length about the energy crisis saying that public outrage at worst load shedding was not misplaced adding that the country must fix the energy mix and return to 70 per cent hydel and 30 per cent non hydel based energy production.

The Youth Prime Minister Hashim Azeem, Youth opposition leader Fahad Mazhar, Youth Finance and Economic Affairs minister Numair Farooq and Youth Shadow Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs Tabraiz Marri presented Youth Parliament Pakistan souvenir to Senator Mohammad Ishaq Dar.