Addressing budget reservations: PM invites political allies to dinner tonight

  • BNP-M, PML-Q leaders refuse to attend dinner
Updated 28 Jun, 2020

(Karachi) In order to address reservations of political allies related to the budget, Prime Minister Imran Khan has invited coalition partners to a dinner tonight at his official residence, media has reported. Federal ministers and PTI members would also attend the dinner.

As part of efforts, the prime minister will also convince the Balochistan National Party-Mengal (BNP-M) and redress their grievances. The government has also agreed to implement the six-point agenda agreed with the BNP-M including six percent jobs for Balochistan in federal government departments.

However, the BNP-M has refused to attend dinner hosted by the PM, saying it is no longer a partner in coalition.

Meanwhile, Balochistan Awami Party (BAP), government's ally in the province, has decided to attend the dinner and extend support to the government for approval of the federal budget for year 2020-21.

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Reportedly, Pakistan Muslim League- Quaid-e-Azam (PML-Q) and Railways Minister Shaikh Rashid Ahmed will also not attend the dinner.

The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) government unveiled its second annual budget for the fiscal year 2020-21 on June 12 with a total outlay of Rs 7,294.9 billion. This size is 11% lower than the size of budget estimates 2019-20.

The budget deficit would be 7pc of the GDP and has been budgeted at Rs3,195 billion for FY2021. Whereas, the government will pull out the Pakistan economy from a negative 0.4pc contraction and targets a 2.1pc GDP growth in FY 2021.

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