Everyone has to shoulder responsibility, Iqbal tells Bilawal on budget complaint

NAROWAL (NNI): Federal Minister for Planning Ahsan Iqbal has said that the prime minister has always addressed complaints of allies.
Commenting on the complaint of Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, PML-N minister said that the allies were part of the federal cabinet that passed the budget. “Over 80 billion rupees have been allocated for support to the flood victims of Sindh in the Benazir Income Support Program,” he said. “In decisions made with unanimous agreement, everyone has to shoulder the responsibility,” Ahsan Iqbal said. “One should avoid to make statements in public meetings,” he said.
Ahsan Iqbal said that the coalition government had saved the country from default through concerted efforts.
“Pakistan’s economy would take the road to progress due to a proper roadmap which has been formulated,” said the minister while inaugurating the development division in Narowal.
Ahsan said when the Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) government came into power along with its allies, there were two ways in front of the PML-N leadership, saving politics or the state, and the PML-N choose the latter option.
He alleged that ‘change’ of 2018 has become a nightmare for Pakistan. “Terrorism was eradicated from Pakistan under the leadership of Nawaz Sharif but the journey of progress from Pakistan was ended under conspiracy. The PML-N gave CPEC as a gift to the country but a clumsy, inexperienced worker was given a certificate of trustworthiness,” he said. The Planning Minister said ‘inexperienced worker’ was made the country’s prime minister and that person had not planned a single project in four years stint in power.
Ahsan Iqbal said that the former prime minister built only the ‘highway of hatred’. “Investors fled Pakistan because of this person,” Ahsan Iqbal said. “If the PML-N leadership had not taken care of Pakistan, we would have defaulted,” the minister said. The Planning Minister said that the Chairman PTI failed to give a single development project within his four years. “His inexperience destroyed the economy, the PML-N not holding reins of the country, the country had defaulted soon,” he said. Talking about the China Pakistan Economic Corridor, he stressed that the project was supposed to life the people by attracting the foreign direct investment while claiming the PTI government ruined the pace of project due to which the FDI remained standstill.
Ahsan Iqbal highlighted that ‘incompetent people’ were given the reins of power, and they, in turn, wreaked havoc to the economy adding a dishonest person was given the certificate of honest which resulted in diminishing FDI in the county.
He said the PML-N government added 11,000 megawatts in the country electrical system that decreased loadshedding besides providing opportunities to investors. On the other hand, the PML-N has decided to take PPP on board about budget concerns and in this regard the government led team will hold a meeting with the PPP at Prime Minister Secretariat.
Sindh chief minister Murad Ali Shah is expected to sit in the meeting as well. The federal government brief the Sindh government on the fund’s allocation for the rehabilitation of flood hit people of province.
The Sindh government demanded the federal government to allocate separate budget for flood hit people of Sindh.
Earlier, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari in a public meeting in Swat said that his party’s approval of the budget for the fiscal year 2023-24 depended on Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s decision to allocate funds for flood victims that were promised last year.
The PPP chairman expressed concern over absence of allocated funds for flood victims in the budget. He urged the prime minister to fulfil his promise regarding flood aid.
Bilawal said he was surprised to know that no funds were allocated for any province for flood reconstruction, emphasizing that the rehabilitation of flood victims was inevitable for economic growth.