Under the given circumstances, the budget in every aspect is balanced and people-friendly, he said while taking part in the budget discussion at the parliament.

The opposition should not make criticism for just criticism sake, Ashraf said adding that if it finds any fault in the budget, it should come with solutions.

Pervez Ashraf said that the huge internal and external debt on the country was not the result of over-barrowings only but depreciation in rupees value since 1960 also deteriorated the situation.

"There is need that all parties come together and discuss how to pull the country out of this debt burden marsh," he suggested.

He, however, expressed satisfaction over the positive performance of several sectors of economy during the current fiscal year, attributing these to governments prudent policies.

He said that the exports form the country would reach to historic level of $24 billion while the remittances were also touching $12 billion figure this year.

Pervez Ashraf stressed the need of avoiding criticizing against army saying that propagating perceptions about the difference between people and army should be stopped.

He quoted Javed Hashimi as having said The parliament is the mother of all institutions, so unfair criticism should stop against any of these institutions.

He said that the PPP government has given huge sacrifices for the democracy and has been promoting the culture of true democracy instead of resorting to horse-trading.

He said that under the accepted norms of politics, the PPP has negotiated with one of the political parties to become the part of the government.

He said that it was not possible for a single part to cope with the current day challenges that country has been facing and that is why Peoples Party has been involving other parties in the government to cope with the challenges aptly.

Copyright APP (Associated Press of Pakistan), 2011