PAT issues white paper on federal budget

The committee formed by the Chairman PAT Muhammad Dr. Tahir-ul-Qadri has issued white paper on the budget for 2017-18 presented by federal government. It said that the budget that allocated Rs. 1363 billion on just payment of interest was not historic but condemnable. The committee also noted that instead of getting rid of debts, the government had announced to borrow the loans of Rs. 8 hundred billion. The committee also lamented that the money which was to be spent on provision of health, education, justice and ensuring law and order, is being wasted in paying the interest.

It also observed that the cumulative spending on payment of interest had exceeded the total expenditure on defense and development. The committee welcomed the 10% Zarb-e Azb allowance but pointed out that the government had virtually buried the National Action Plan by not issuing required funds to the NECTA. The government had preferred borrowed Roghni Naan to the dried Roti of honour despite presenting its 5th budget. The committee wondered how corruption could be eradicated and the Model Town like incident could be avoided without bringing about reform in justice system. It added that none but the government and the international financial institutions were satisfied over the budget. The nation was praying that this budget would be the last budget of PML (N) government.

The white paper was prepared by the committee headed by Khurram Nawaz Gandapur, including Basharat Jaspal, Brig (R ) Muhammad Mushtaq, Fiaz Warraich, Dr. S.M. Zamir, Noorullah Siddiqui and Irfan Yosuf. It said that the Article 36 emphasized the elimination of interest instantly but the Nawaz Sharif-led government promoted the interest-based economic activities. This was the reason why the government had utterly failed to fulfill its constitutional obligation of providing social justice, availability of equal opportunities to the people for their economic welfare and equitable progress.

The white paper also termed the terrible increase in debt to GDP ratio from 60 to 69 as the categorical indication of the weakness of economy and failure of government economic policies. It severely criticized the government for its negligence with respect to NECTA and added that NECTA was constituted as the integrated counter terrorism effort but the government only allocated just Rs. 140 million that would merely meet the operational cost such as salaries and utility expenditure of NECTA.

The white paper added that it was ironic that the government would spend only 140 million for the security of 210 million people and a hefty amount of Rs 10 billion is being allocated for the security of a few foreigners, while noting that this manifestly indicated that the security of people was not even included in the priorities of the government.

The document lambasted the government over its decision of reducing the subsidies of electricity, utility stores, and cut in the fund of national food security research, while pointing out that the reduction of subsidies would mean the increased prices of electricity in near future, lack of availability of cheap eatables and pure milk. According to white paper, the government approved the subsidy of Rs. 7 billion last year but this time, it has cut the subsidy by 43% and now it is only 4 billion, unfortunately the government has also reduced the Ramazan package to 1.5 billion, 25 % cut as compared to previous year.

The white paper condemned the cruel treatment meted out to the protesting farmers by the government outside the parliament house and termed the cut of 71% in budget for PASCO as the enmity towards the farmers because those farmers who used to sell their crops at the official rate, would no longer be able to do that. The paper also criticized the government move of cutting the KESC’s subsidy from 22 billion to 15 billion and hinted that the citizens of Karachi would buy the most expensive electricity in Pakistan, that is discriminatory and exploitative measure, the paper added.

The white paper demanded the 100% increase in the budget dedicated for buying the cheap wheat and food for the people of Gilgit-Baltistan and FATA. It also revealed that the government had borrowed Rs. 6.5 trillion during last 4 years and now it had announced to further borrow Rs. 800 billion, while noting that the claims of historic budget were a deliberate attempt on the part of government to increase its credibility to take more loans from the international community. The paper gives the breakdown of government plan of taking loans: Rs. 168 billion from China, Rs. 17 billion from France, Rs. 5 billion from Korea, Rs. 80 million from Turkey, Rs.12 billion from USA, Rs. 5 billion from Japan, Rs. 105 billion by issuing the Sukuk Bond, Rs. 165 billion from Islamic Development Bank, Rs. 128 billion from Asian Development Bank and remaining debts would be borrowed from IMF and World Bank. The white paper laments that our next generation would remain the slave of IFIs due to excessive debts and loans accrued during the current government.

The while paper observed that the international drugs network operating from Pakistan and particularly active during last few month has badly damaged the international image of Pakistan and our national airline, PIA has earned very bad name in this regard. It was need of hour that huge budget was allotted for strengthening the anti-narcotics monitoring system within cities and along the borders, but the government only sanctioned only Rs. 2.5 billion in this regard. The allocation of such a meagre funds is convincing enough to indicate that government is not interested in saving the youth from drug addiction and restoring the image of Pakistan.