Budget fulfils aspirations of IMF, says JI chief.

KARACHI -- 'The fiscal budget 2021 is International Monetary Fund (IMF) oriented and all the measures that could have been taken to provide relief to the people have been ignored,' Jamaat-i-Islami Pakistan ameer Senator Sirajul Haq said while addressing a press conference at Idara Noor-i-Haq.

'The budget lacks ground realities and the government before preparing it did not bother to consult opposition, businessmen and trade unions for their respective input', he said.

He also claimed that the government did not consider National Finance CommAission Award and no relief was provided for the poor in the budget which was entirely based on 'aspirations of the IMF' and ignored government employees.

Senator Sirajul Haq said allocation for the education sector had been curtailed while around 3.1 million seminary students were also ignored.

'The World Bank and the IMF never bother about development of countries; it is the responsibility of rulers to take courageous measures in this direction,' he added.

Criticises performance of federal and provincial govts

'There is no scheme in the budget for the tribal areas and for overseas Pakistanis while allocations for Balochistan and Gilgit-Baltistan have been curtailed,' he said.

The government should rethink its budget as the JI is in consultation with the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, the Pakistan Peoples Party and the Jamiat Ulama-i-Islam for taking a unified line of action in this connection, he added.

He criticised the performance of the federal and the provincial governments and the National Disaster Management Authority, which he said, had failed to provide facilities to coronavirus patients, health workers, doctors and hospitals.

According to the government's statistics around 170 million people have become jobless, but no programme has been put in place for them in the budget, he added.

Karachi hospitals...