RECORDER REPORT

KARACHI: Sindh Minister for Information and Local Government Syed Nasir Hussain Shah has said that everybody in the country has rejected the federal government’s budget.

He said that the serious threats facing the country were not given any importance in the budget of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).

He said that the PTI government had presented a traditional budget. He said this while addressing a press conference on Saturday. Spokesperson for the Sindh Government and Adviser to the Chief Minister Sindh for Law, Environment, Climate Change and Coastal Development Barrister Murtaza Wahab was also present during the press conference.

Syed Nasir Hussain Shah said that this was the anti-people budget of PTI and International Monetary Fund. He said that the PTI’s budget has only hurt the common man. He said that it was a great surprise that even in such an era of inflation, the PTI did not increase the salaries or pensions of government employees in the budget. He said that the budget presented by the federal government was very disappointing, adding that, and it was also possible that a mini, supplementary or Insaaf budget would come after it.

He told that the federal government had paid Rs234 billion less than the total share of Sindh government even during the current financial year. He said that there were many tragedies, floods and wars in this country, but the low recovery last year under the PTI government in terms of percentage was unprecedented in the history of Pakistan.

Nasir Hussain Shah said that despite the fact that the federal government revised its recovery target two or three times, it still failed to achieve the target. He said that it was baseless to make the spread of coronavirus as excuse for the failure of the recovery, as it was only three months since the coronavirus started spreading in the country. He said that in fact it was the incompetence of the federal government that it had not been able to fulfil any of its promises and has not been able to achieve any target.

The provincial minister termed the federal budget as nothing but a blur of words. He said that the federal budget had taken full care of the investors, while the poor had been given only consolation. He said that not only this was true but now everyone had known that the current PTI economic team is a complete failure. He was of the view that there was enough in the budget for the big businessmen involved in the construction sector but nothing was given to the poor class workers connected with this sector.

He said that it was very unfortunate that the salaries and pensions of government employees were not increased in the federal budget.

Talking about the spread of coronavirus, Nasir Hussain Shah said that the Sindh government had been working continuously since February 26, adding that, the situation would had been totally different if the federal government had cooperated with the Sindh government. He further said that if the apex court had not given the order, the Sindh government would not have listened to the federal government regarding the lifting of the lockdown. He said that if all the necessary steps had been taken in the month of March, the coronavirus would not have spread in the country to such an extent today. The role of the opposition in Sindh during the time of pandemic was obvious to all, the provincial minister said.

He said that regarding the budget session of Sindh Assembly, it had been suggested that this session should be virtual. The provincial Information minister said that the Sindh Assembly would be the first assembly in the country to convene its budget session with the help of modern technology. He said that the budget session of Sindh Assembly would be hybrid session.

Addressing a press conference on the occasion, Barrister Murtaza Wahab, Sindh Chief Minister’s Legal Adviser, said that the Sindh government was currently keeping its focus on curbing the spread of the coronavirus. He said that all hospitals, including Lyari and Civil Hospitals, were being upgraded. He questioned why the recovery targets of those who lifted the lockdown in the name of economy and labourers could not be met.

Murtaza Wahab said that on the one hand, the federal government is not helping the Sindh government and on the other hand, it was creating more chaos by creating obstacles in the way of the Sindh government.