Farooq Sattar terms budget ‘Not People-Friendly’

Muttahida Qaumi Movement–Pakistan (MQM-P ) leader Farooq Sattar has said that the federal budget does not meet public expectations and called for greater financial relief for citizens, particularly for Karachi and Hyderabad, 24NewsHD TV reported on Friday. 

Speaking at a press conference at the Parliament Media Centre, Farooq Sattar noted that the federal budget was presented shortly after MQM-P met with the Prime Minister, in which the party raised three key demands.

He said MQM-P had requested a special development package of 40 billion rupees for Karachi and Hyderabad.

However, he claimed that the figures reflected in the budget were different from what had been discussed.

The MQM-P leader said the party also demanded that the governorship of Sindh be given to MQM-P, adding that while their concerns were heard, no formal approval was granted.

Farooq Sattar stressed that although no new taxes were introduced in the budget, the burden of existing indirect taxes remained heavy on the public.

He urged the government to reduce electricity and gas prices to provide relief to ordinary citizens.

He said a large segment of the population was struggling to afford even one meal a day, calling for urgent action to ease economic pressure on low-income households.

Criticizing the overall fiscal structure, he suggested that substantial revenue could be generated by improving tax collection from large landowners and by reducing corruption in the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) related departments.

He also proposed eliminating petroleum levies and taxes to help reduce the cost of living. “People must be given a chance to survive,” he said.

Farooq Sattar added that Pakistan currently had economic opportunities globally and urged the government to adopt a more pro-people budget approach. He also called for a further 20% reduction in capacity charges of Independent Power Producers (IPPs), arguing that energy costs remain a major burden.

The MQM-P leader said the current budget failed to meet expectations, especially for urban centres like Karachi, and demanded fair distribution of newly available water resources for the city and DHA areas.