This is a ‘PTIMF budget’, says Bilawal

Taking part in a post-budget debate in the National Assembly on Tuesday, Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said that Covid-19 is a challenge.

“In the past, such pandemics destroyed ancient civilizations and broke nations apart. Every fifteen minutes, a Pakistani succumbs to Covid-19. The other challenge facing us is the locust attack, which is the most severe of attacks in twenty five years. There is a threat of floods and economic recession in the country,” he said.

He said, “This budget is not a budget for the current situation. This budget is not a budget for current times and that too of a country battling Covid-19 and locust attacks. This is a budget for another country, another situation and for another time. At least 149,000 people are suffering from Covid-19 and approximately 3,000 have passed away. At least 2,000 doctors and paramedics have been infected and 40 have passed away, but the government has no policy.”

Someone had said that Covid-19 is just like a cold or flu, it is not lethal, it would end on its own in summer and that it is not a pandemic, he added. He said asked, “How dare you blame people for your criminal negligence? People will surely give you an answer in the elections. We were hoping that this budget would tackle those problems and challenges. The federal government only ‘promised’ better steps; it did not increase the budget for health.”

He said, “We have not allotted enough money for our provincial governments to battle Covid-19. We did not increase the salaries of our health workers and the risk allowance. PPP always warned you of these challenges and about terrorism as well. The past year, President Zardari and Akhtar Mengal had highlighted the locust issue in the Parliament.

“Until children were not martyred in the APS incident, no one believed that there is a threat of terrorism. Our people are threatened by the locust attack, but the government has done nothing to tackle the issue. This issue is the most dangerous after Covid-19. Till today, an airplane is parked in Sukkur without a pilot. When will we take action?

“We have been trying to make them understand since February, you are yourself putting food security in danger. Who is responsible for the loss that our federation is suffering from? The federal government of course,” he added.

The PPP chairman said, “We asked them to adopt WHO guidelines and requested a lockdown. We could have prepared by imposing a lockdown, we had to improve our healthcare capacity, we were listening to the voices of our doctors and nurses, and we were listening to our experts and scientists. The prime minister was listening to businessmen and the ATMs. The time during Ramazan and Eid was very dangerous. Had we imposed a lockdown until after Eid, we could have stopped the spread of the virus and it would have been limited to big cities only. We are the only country which protected our right to shop, but did not protect our right to life.

“We had an example of Germany. We had examples like New Zealand and Australia before us. Italy used to ask others to learn from their experience. Poor countries are also combating Covid-19, there is not a single death in Vietnam, and it is because they faced the pandemic with unity and harmony. They saved their lives and economy. We were being given Sweden as an example, but today, Sweden’s leaders are apologizing because the most deaths and economic losses have occurred there. Today, Sweden has worse situation than any of its neighbours,” he said.

He said, “I have two questions. How many businessmen and industrialist were contacted during the lockdown? How many doctors, nurses and labourers were contacted? This tells us who the prime minister is worried about.”

“Benazir Income Support Programme’s four months worth of money was distributed at a time. The rich were given relief. The poor people were not provided with any sort of relief. There should have been a 40% increase in BISP. You have to transfer cash to our poor and middle class people as well. This budget is a traditional PTIMF budget, our finance minister agrees. He says that they are more worried for IMF than our people. They have appeased the IMF by crushing the poor.

“It is said that the GDP will face a -0.4% growth, but the World Bank states it will be -2.5%. They said they would not obtain a loan from the State Bank but during 2019-20 Rs1720 million were obtained from the State Bank. They claim that Rs5,000 billion were returned as a loan payment, when you have taken a new loan just to pay the old one. This country is showing least growth, but the government has obtained the most loans,” he said.

He said the government should have imposed taxes on the rich and given relief to people. “The poor people suffer the most under the burden of indirect taxes. You should have imposed a ‘Covid-19 Super Tax’. A wealth tax should have been imposed and those with assets worth more than Rs20 million should have been asked to pay 1%. This is an anti-poor and anti-labourer budget. You should have increased the salaries and the pensions. In our tenure, we had increased the pensions by 100% and the salaries by 135%. We demand an increase in salaries and pensions. Employees are risking their lives to combat Covid-19. There should be an increase in everyone’s salaries, be it doctors and nurses or the police. During a pandemic, ten thousand steel mill employees were rendered unemployed. We cannot lay them off, the land is ours, if you have to do something, then talk to us. You cannot lay them off after the Corona Bill in Sindh. They are an oppressive government. They have decreased former FATA’s budget during a pandemic. The money that has been allotted to tackle the locust issue is insufficient. This is a matter of life and death for our farmers and us,” he said.

Bilawal said, “Today too, they are being unjust to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. They are not being given their share of the Hydel Project. Balochistan’s money is being deducted and given to Islamabad, this is unjust. You deduct Rs6 billion from Gilgit Baltistan’s budget. You are being unjust to Sindh as well. You are deducting Rs229 billion from us. Countries are not run like this, we are not colonies.”

He said, “This is PTI’s fourth budget, this is anti-education and they are deducting 37% from Balochistan’s HEC. How oppressive are you during a pandemic? Before the lockdown and Covid-19 you were harming us. Your own report says that due to the IMF deal, the economy which was first in the ICU is now on the ventilator. After Covid-19, you have to stay away from IMF’s approach and would have to invest in your own agriculture.”

He said this government is trying to hide behind Covid-19 and in the name of coronavirus they are gathering funds from within and outside the country but are not spending them on virus patients. He said that Rs70 billion was not being allotted for virus but for their members’ own projects.

“They want to steal hospitals of provincial governments. Why do you want to fight with the provinces during a pandemic? The NICVD treats the most number of patients suffering from heart diseases free of cost. Imran Khan’s relative has destroyed the hospitals in KP. You want to destroy every successful PPP project and we will not let this happen. For a long time, we are trying to get as little help from the federal government as we can. We should increase our local revenue so that we can get a greater share.

“We should take decisions based on consensus; we should not tamper with the fault lines that are the 18th Amendment and the NFC Award. A woman was martyred in Turbat and the entire Balochistan protested. A PTM candidate was murdered in FATA. This is a fault line. We should not tamper with them,” the PPP chairman warned.