Nothing in budget for poor, labourers, farmers: Bilawal.

KARACHI: Pakistan People's Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari Tuesday said the budget for fiscal year 2020-21 has not been prepared keeping in view the current challenges including that of coronavirus and locusts.

Participating in discussion on the budget in National Assembly, he said the budget carries no packages for the provinces to deal with the pandemic. He stressed the recommendations of the WHO should be followed to save the lives and the economy. He said the budget for the income support program should have been enhanced by at least 40% in view of the Covid-19 challenge. He said the government should have taxed the affluent class in order to extend relief to the poor.

Bilawal said the Sindh government was 'clear' about the challenge of Covid-19 from the very first day while the federal government has been the 'opposite'. "They are confused. We requested that World Health Organisation's guidelines be followed so that we can save the lives of our people. We have always said that our priority should've been to test on a war scale, and then trace contacts. That's how countries around the world defeated it," he said. "We were listening to doctors and nurses, the people who to this day are fighting this on the frontline. And the [federal] government was listening to businessmen, elites and ATM machines," he added.

"Did [the government] make the...