Budget FY26-27: President summons session on June 5

President Asif Ali Zardari has summoned the budget session for fiscal year 2026-27 of the Senate and National Assembly on June 5 (Friday), the President’s House said on Wednesday.

The NA session will be held at 5pm on Friday, while the Senate session will be held at 6pm on June 5.

The session has been convened under Article 54(1) of the Constitution.

Last week, the National Assembly Standing Committee on Finance and Revenue directed the Tax Policy Unit of the Ministry of Finance and the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) that the federal budget (2026–27) must move beyond short-term stabilisation measures and instead serve as a platform for sustainable economic reform, fiscal transparency, improved governance and inclusive growth.

The Standing Committee on Finance and Revenue expressed serious concern about the continued reliance on indirect taxation and petroleum levies instead of sustainable tax-base expansion.

During the briefing, the Committee was informed that Pakistan remains on a “fragile stabilisation path” despite signs of gradual economic recovery.

GDP growth for FY2026–27 is projected between 3.5% and 4.5%, while inflation has once again entered double digits, reaching 10.9% year-on-year in April 2026.

Earlier, the Ministry of Finance dismissed reports that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif handed the budget-making process to Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar, calling the claims “factually incorrect” and “misleading”.

The ministry said that the story, published in a local media outlet, “incorrectly portrays the constitution of a high-level review committee by the Prime Minister as a ‘handover’ of the budget-making process from the Finance Division or as a ‘sidelining’ of the finance minister”.

“This interpretation is factually incorrect, misleading and does not reflect the actual mandate or functioning of the committee,” it said.