Budget to benefit rich at the cost of poor: PPP

Pakistan People's Party Multan leaders Malik Ahmed Hussain Dehar, Provincial Vice President, Khalid Hanif Lodhi, District President, Khurshid Ahmed Khan, City President, Khawaja Rizwan Alam, Provincial Secretary Public Relations said in their statements that the government had made the Rs 356 billion provincial budget to benefit the rich at the cost of the poor.
It is anti-people budget, which was rejected by all sections of society. They said the budget was merely a "cosmetic makeover" to hide the government's inefficiency in implementing its developmental programmes. She said the government's negligence had increased the class conflict. They said the government had also admitted that the gap between the rich and the poor was increasing.
They said that the government's flawed policy was to be blamed for lack of foreign investment in any sector other than the services sector such as information technology and telecommunication, which was also a result of the privatisation of state assets. They said the government had not made any policy for the energy sector, which resulted in frequent load shedding in the province.
They said that out of the Rs 100 billion allocated for the Annual Development Programme (ADP) last year, only 69 percent had been spent in the first 9 months of the fiscal year. She added that out of the Rs 45 billion allocated for the Lahore-Sialkot Motorway and the Lahore Ring Road only 6.3 percent was spent.
They said the Parha Likha Punjab programme required Rs 37 billion, but so far, only a small proportion of that had been spent. She said this programme was ill conceived. She added that they announced Rs 500 stipend for female students was not being paid. They said that the government was spending more on advertisements than betterment of education.
They said that in 1960, agriculture share in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was 40 percent, which had come down to 20 percent. She added that industry shared 16 percent of the GDP and this figure was still at 16 percent, which indicates that there had been no growth in it.