F.P. Report
LAHORE: Ameer, Jamaat e Islami, Pakistan, Senator Sirajul Haq, has described the budget as a suicide attack on the poor man’s hut and said the entire nation wanted it should be rejected.
Taking part in the budget debate in the Senate on Friday, he said the government had not discussed the budget with the opposition even for a few minutes. The budget simply talked of revenue collection and the poor masses had been crushed under it, he added. He said there was no allocation for tribal areas in the budget.
Sirajul Haq deplored that the elected Finance Minister Asad Umar was removed and an IMF worker inducted in his place. He termed the budget a satanic device and a big trap and called for its thorough review.
He warned that the passage of the budget would increase crimes, corruption and well as poverty. He said that whoever voted in favour of the budget, would be doing great injustice to the masses.”
He called for setting up a commission to probe the causes of the rise in the prices of sugar, cement and products of the country. He said the sugar mills owners had earned billions due to this increase. “ Just as the national cricket team led by Sarfraz has been defeated, the government economic team has suffered a bigger defeat in the budget making, he remarked.
Sirajul Haq noted that tax had been imposed on sports goods due to which the sports goods makers of Sialkot were protesting. He slated the cut in the education budget and pointed out that the HEC had given a hint that iy would increase its fees and slash its staff. He said a big achievement of the PTI government was to have secured as much loan as the PPP government had secured during its ten years. The JI chief said that during the last ten months, one million people had been rendered jobless.
Taking strong exception to the rulers’ view that the nation was evading taxes, Sirajul Haq said that even a common labourer in the country was paying 42 indirect taxes. Speaking on accountability, Sirajul Haq said that Ehtisab should be started from the ruling party. He said that the 436 persons named in the Panama leaks should also be subjected to Ehtisab. He said the performance of the Supreme Court and the NAB in corruption cases was unsatisfactory.
