NA passes Rs4.2tr budgetary demands, grants.

Byline: Syed Irfan Raza

ISLAMABAD -- Amid severe criticism by the opposition, the National Assembly on Friday passed budgetary demands and grants of over Rs4.2 trillion of the budget for financial year 2020-21 recently laid in the house for debate.

The opposition did not present cut motions on 96 demands, paving the way to their passage in the first phase of the session before interval, while on 94 other demands its cut motions were rejected.

The opposition members termed the budget 'unrealistic' and said the government had tried to fool the people through the budget. They lamented the government's fiscal and social policies vis-a-vis taxes, performance of institutions, health and education sectors, minorities, foreign loans and their utilisation, salary and pension of government employees, exports, oil pricing, sugar crisis and food security.

They said the targets set in the budget 2020-21 would never be met because ground realities were ignored by the government during its preparation.

The opposition leaders also sought details of assets of Prime Minister Imran Khan's advisers and special assistants, besides demanding resignation of Aviation Minister Ghulam Sarwar Khan for what they called his 'irresponsible' statement relating to the recent crash of PIA's aircraft in Karachi and the educational degrees of pilots of the national flag carrier.

Opposition seeks details of assets of PM's aides, resignation of aviation minister

Dr Nafeesa Shah of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) demanded the aviation minister's resignation for maligning the country, PIA and its pilots and sending a wrong message to the international community.

Mohsin Ranjha of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) sought details of assets of PM's advisers and special assistants and asked if parliamentarians could submit their assets' details to the Election Commission of Pakistan, then why PM's aides could not provide such details before parliament.

In his concluding speech, Minister for Industries Hammad Azhar responded to all the allegations of the opposition and described the current account deficit inherited from the last PML-N government as 'mother of all economic ills'. 'The current account deficit affects GDP and caused inflation in the country,' he added.

Talking about the opposition's criticism that the government had enhanced the revenue target by Rs1tr without imposing any new tax and keeping in view the economic condition of the country due to the coronavirus...

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