PESHAWAR: The Federal government has finalized a ‘plan of action’ to pass the “controversial” mini-budget from the national assembly despite strong resistance from the opposition political parties on Today [Thursday].
All the members of the ruling party have been directed to reach Islamabad following the reservations from the ruling coalition party Mutahida Qaumi Movemen (MQM). Punjab Chief Minister Usman Bazdar and Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Mahmood Khan have arrived in Islamabad. The two Chief Ministers have also given separate dinners in honor of the elected members of the National Assembly from their respective provinces.
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Speaker National Assembly Asad Qaiser, Federal Ministers Shehryar Afridi, Ali Muhammad Khan and Umar Ayub also participated in the events. However, there were reports that some MNAs from Punjab were missing during the meeting with CM Buzdar.
Meanwhile, sources said that Prime Minister Imran Khan has convened the meeting of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s parliamentary committee before the National Assembly session on Thursday afternoon to finalise strategy to cope with the opposition political parties’ protests. The party leadership has directed all members of the assembly to reach the Parliament House before 2 pm. According to sources, Prime Minister will also reach Parliament House on Thursday.
On the other hand, the Pakistan Peoples Party, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and other opposition parties vowed to stop the passage of mini-budget from the parliament. The opposition will protest against the mini-budget inside and outside the National Assembly on Today. Sources said that the opposition parties have also instructed the workers to gather before the parliament against the mini-budget.
The PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said that the proposed ‘mini-budget’ will unleash another ‘Tsunami of inflation’ as the government is planning to squeeze out Rs350 billion from common men.
Speaking at the National Assembly, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari alleged that the PTI government has put Pakistan’s economic sovereignty on jeopardy by following every dictation of the International Monitory Fund (IMF). He said, “We had never seen such bad economic indicators in Pakistan’s history. The development and economic growth have been brought to historically negative by the PTI government.”