Murad defends budget after opposition’s criticism
Staff Reporter
Islamabad
PPP Chairperson Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has criticised the PTI government for not taking the coronavirus pandemic into account in the 2021 budget.
Speaking on the floor of the National Assembly,on Monday he said: “Did [the government] make the effort to tailor the budget according to the virus’ needs? Have we increased the salaries of doctors and nurses? Did they get risk allowance? How much has been spent on corona risk awareness? Have the people been told how to follow SOPs, how to protect themselves and their loved ones? It seems like this budget forgot that we are suffering through a pandemic.”
He claimed that the PTI government had “opposed every measure to slow the spread of the virus
PPP chairperson Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has said that the Sindh government was “clear about the challenge of Covid-19 from the very first day while the federal government has been the opposite”.
“They are confused. We requested that World Health Organisation’s guidelines be followed so that we can save the lives of our people. We have always said that our priority should’ve been to test on a war scale, and then trace contacts. That’s how countries around the world defeated it. “We were listening to doctors and nurses, the people who to this day are fighting this on the frontline. And the [federal] government was listening to businessmen, elites and ATM machines.”
Meanwhlie, Communications Minister Murad Saeed rejected PPP chairperson Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari’s assertion that the budget for the next fiscal year didn’t take into account the coronavirus pandemic.
Holding a hard copy of the budget in his hand, Saeed argued on the floor of the National Assembly that given the first three pointers of the federal budget deal with Covid-19 and its fallout, the budget was, in fact, coronavirus-oriented.
“Which budget are they [PPP] referring to?” Saeed inquired, adding that whichever budget that the PPP chairperson Bilawal was referring to couldn’t possibly have been a Pakistani budget.
