Past budgets disappointed people: Mushahidullah
* PML-N leader says people raising questions about killers of Benazir
* Nothing being allocated for new provinces
By Ijaz Kakakhel
Saturday, June 09, 2012
Source - Daily Times
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Mushahidullah Khan on Friday said that people were disappointed as they were suffering the consequences of the last four budgets of the government in the form of prolonged load shedding, rising prices of gas and electricity, unemployment, and the deteriorating law and order situation.
About the fifth budget, he said the result would be the same. The senator expressed these views in the Upper House while taking part in a discussion on the annual budget 2012-13. After the assassination of Benazir Bhuto, people gave power to Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) in the general elections, “but a group of people hijacked the party and the whole nation was suffering from their misdeeds”, he said. The PML-N leader said that the people of Pakistan “would take revenge for all misdoings of the PPP regime”.
Sitting ministers are involved in several corruption cases, like NICL, rental power plants, and many more, which resulted in the deficit in the annual budget 2012-13, he alleged. Such a huge budget deficit has severe consequences for the people and the future of the country, Khan said. Public enterprises, including Pakistan Railways, PIA and Pakistan Steel Mills, were being given further allocations in the budget, which made no sense because they had failed to perform efficiently, he said. He also ciriticised the government for an increase in the secret fund for the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. The PML-N senator regretted that Punjab province was confronting severe load shedding as the federal government was punishing the province because of the PML-N’s rule there.
Mushahidullah apprised the House that as the general elections were near, the PPP government had announced the formation of new provinces, but it was strange that not a single penny was being allocated in the annual budget 2012-13 for that purpose. It was like a joke with the people of those areas where there existed demands for separate provinces, he added.
The government was pursuing war on terror but nothing had been allocated in the budget documents for that purpose, he said, adding that the government had to inform the people as to who was financing the war on terror.
He said the founder of the PPP, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, and Benazir Bhutto had sacrificed their lives for welfare of the people, but the current rulers were disappointing people. He said the incumbent government was on a totally opposite direction from the one set by the PPP founders. In coming general elections, the people would ask about the killers of Benazir Bhutto, he said, adding that “the killers were sitting in the government”. Mushahidullah claimed that Nawaz Sharif would arrest the killers of Banazir Bhutto if he came to power, because he called her his sister.
About the Balochistan situation, he said had Pervez Musharraf not killed Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti, the situation would have been totally different today. “What is the performance of the PPP government,” he questioned, adding that just the announcement of the Aghaz-e-Huqooq-e-Balochistan Package was not enough for the Baloch people.
Karachi is on fire and target killings have become routine there, but the government remains silent with a view to continue reconciliation policy.