ISLAMABAD: While continuing discussion on the federal budget for the fiscal year 2020-21, the members from treasury and opposition benches in the National Assembly (NA) on Friday urged the government to allocate more financial resources for economic development and education and health sectors.
Speaking on the floor of the House, Pakistan People’s Party leader and former prime minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf said that special financial measures were needed to deal with coronavirus.
He said that in the present circumstances, unity and consensus were required in the ranks of all political parties to fight with the deadly virus which had been badly affecting the whole world, including Pakistan.
He was of the view that being head of the government, it was responsibility of the prime minister to invite all the parties for devising comprehensive planning to defeat the pandemic.
Referring to the prime minister’s visit to Sindh, he expressed disappointment that Prime Minister Imran Khan visited Sindh three months after the spread of Covid-19 but did not bother to meet the chief minister.
He asked the government to bring back Pakistanis stranded in various parts of the world on its own expense and by hiring chartered aircrafts.
He said that the government had abandoned the people of Pakistan who were facing the pandemic on their own. The government had surrendered before Covid-19, he remarked.
While talking to the premier’s statement regarding the need for reviewing the 18th Amendment, he warned that any such move would make it difficult to run a federation.
He urged the government to try to unite the nation and not to divide it further with divisive statements.
He criticised the government for not taking timely action to stop locust attacks despite timely warnings last year.
He said that the government had not taken measures to construct five million houses as announced by PM Imran during the election campaign.
The PPP leader asked the government to set up university in his area of Gujar Khan as land for this purpose had been given by the locals.
He asked the government to increase the salary of the public sector employees.
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) MNA Amjad Ali Khan defended PM Imran’s handling of Covid-19 and said that best pro-people budget had been announced by the PTI government.
He said that when PTI took over charge of the government all the state institutions, including Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM), Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) and Pakistan Railways (PR) were running in losses and the economy was in a bad shape.
Amjad said that all the opposition parties became united against PM Imran as he was against corruption and mafias.
He alleged that Nawaz Sharif, during his visit to India, had refused to meet with leadership of Kashmir.
He said that PM Imran had effectively projected the Kashmir issue at all the international forums. He asked Nawaz to come back to Pakistan and face cases against him.
He also said that the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and PPP had signed Charter of Democracy (CoD) to hide each other’s corruption.
The PTI leader said that economic zones should be established in his constituency of Mianwali and adjoining areas under China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
PML-N leader Riaz Hussain Pirzada, while participating in the budget debate, said that nothing significant had been announced for the agriculture sector.
He said that during the tenure of PML-N government, land was acquired for the construction of mega dam projects.
