Shehbaz, Bilawal leave NA as Hammad responds to opposition's severe criticism of budget

As Minister for Energy Hammad Azhar began his speech in the National Assembly on Friday in response to the opposition's severe criticism of the budget, Leader of the Opposition Shehbaz Sharif began making his way out of the assembly, prompting the minister to challenge him to stay and hear him out.

Azhar was speaking after Bilawal delivered a stinging speech on the floor of the House, saying that the government’s four per cent growth number was a “lie” and that it had abandoned the common man by bringing about unprecedented levels of inflation.

“If you are not cowards then remain in your seats and listen to what I have to say. If you have the strength to hear the truth, then listen to what I have to say,” Azhar said, but the PML-N president did not react and exited the house.

A few minutes later, Bilawal followed suit.

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Yesterday, Shehbaz had also delivered his budget speech, during which he slammed the government for inducing poverty and presenting “fake budgets” over the course of three years. Shehbaz was finally able to complete his address yesterday, following four days of mayhem during which he was unable to address the Lower House as lawmakers from treasury and opposition benches came face to face, hurling copies of the budget and profanities at each other.

Azhar began his speech today by hitting back at Bilawal, saying that “those who have never worked a day in their life or taken any responsibility are telling us how to run the economy and the country.”

He said the stains left behind by corruption “could not be erased by speaking in English”.

“They said to us that this is a government of ‘puppets’. Do they want a government of convicts? Do they want a government in which people are known not by their names but by the dirtiest scandals in the history of this country?”

He said that the PTI had come into power after being elected, adding that it had not “threatened or bribed its way into government”.

Responding to Bilawal’s arguments on inflation and economic growth, Azhar said:

“I looked at the data to see why he [Bilawal] was so hurt talking about 4pc economic growth. Turns out that in their [PPP’s] five years of governance, there was not a single year where they achieved 4pc growth.”

He said that Bilawal had talked about the BISP – the PPP's flagship income support programme – when the chairperson of the said programme had recently been declared a proclaimed offender.

“Some people were only getting stipends [from BISP] due to their affiliation with the PPP,” Azhar said.

The minister said Bilawal had contradicted his own claims. “He said that poverty and unemployment has increased, but didn't give any figures. Then he cited an institution and said that according to them, poverty rates have fallen in three provinces.”

Bilawal lambasts govt over economic policy

Earlier, PPP chairperson Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari lambasted the government "abandoning" the people of Pakistan during "challenging times", saying that the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) could never realise the predicament of the common man.

Addressing the National Assembly (NA) a day after Leader of the Opposition Shehbaz Sharif delivered his budget speech, the PPP chief slammed the government for presenting a budget that was a "pack of lies".

Referring to the preceding days of chaos in the NA, he claimed the melee in the house was actually an attempt by treasury members to bar the opposition from "exposing the PTIMF budget".

"They thought they could present their lie of four per cent economic growth as the truth using such antics ... that opposition would not get a chance to speak and people would not realise that the entire budget is based on lies," he said.

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"But they [the government] must realise that the people don't need the opposition's speech [for this realisation]. They are already drowning in the tsunami of inflation that the government has brought on."

Bilawal went on to say that people, who were suffering because of the inflation brought on by Prime Minister Imran Khan's government, were well aware that the claim of four per cent economic growth was nothing but a lie.

He added that the nation might still have forgiven the government had they not "abandoned the people so ruthlessly amid these difficult times".

Acknowledging that there was inflation during the PPP's tenure as well, Bilawal said the difference between the then government and the incumbent government was that the former had not abandoned the people.

"We introduced the revolutionary Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) but this government, on the other hand, harps on about the Ehsaas [programme], when you have no realistion [of the people's predicament]."

Bilawal maintained that the country had seen unprecedented increase in inflation, poverty and unemployment during the PTI's rule and questioned the authenticity of the government's claims of economic growth.

Pointing out that the PPP had increased salaries multiple times and raised pensions, he said the PTI had not raised salaries in the last two years even though the entire world was struggling in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic and every Pakistani was facing financial troubles.

"And this year, there has been a raise of a meagre 10 per cent rise [in salaries] when food inflation has increased to around 17 per cent on average."

The PPP chairperson recalled that the PTI had reached an agreement with government workers on raising their salaries, adding that the insufficient hike in their salaries was an act of deception by the government.

He pointed out that the government had proposed many indirect taxes in the budget for the fiscal year 2021-22, which would further burden the people and add to their suffering.

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