ISLAMABAD: Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, PPP Chairperson said the PTI government was bringing a “tsunami of taxes” through the mini-budget.
He said, “The burden of the government’s agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) would fall on the common people.” Bilawal said the mini-budget would lead to “economic slaughter” across the country.
Bilawal criticised the government over the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) Amendment Bill 2021, approved by a National Assembly panel on Monday, and said the IMF had demanded autonomy for the SBP during the eras of PPP and PML-N, but both the parties rejected this condition.
PPP chairman said Opposition Leader in the National Assembly Shehbaz Sharif talked about a dialogue on the country’s economic issues, but the PTI government refused because of its stubbornness.
Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari also said the government could have used the opposition’s rigidity on the matter to inform the IMF of its inability to accept its demands. “But because of your stubbornness and ego, you took decisions that are a robbery of the common man’s pockets,” he remarked.
PPP leader said the government was presenting a new budget with a new finance minister (Shaukat Tarin), who was reappointed last month, at a time when the country was experiencing “bad economic indicators never seen before”.
He said, “You’ve broken all records of negative growth, inflation, increase in poverty and unemployment rates. When we say this isn’t tabdeeli (change) but destruction, we’re telling the truth. You cannot be entitled to your own facts.”
Bilawal said the people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had shown the PTI a trailer of its inefficiency and dismal performance in recent local bodies elections. He said the price hike policy of the government was turning people against the PTI and showing their resentment by voting for other parties.
