President of Pakistan Economy Watch (PEW), Dr Murtaza Mughal has said that the federal budget has nothing for masses but it is only distribution of resources among legislators. He said that differences among major political parties regarding budget was not aimed to facilitate countrymen but about their share in resources. In a statement issued, he said that Rs 16 billion have been earmarked for development projects in the budget, which will be used to please the members of national and provincial assemblies and supporters. Dr Murtaza Mughal said that if there were some reduction in the development budget, electricity tariff would not have to be hiked to unbelievable levels. Still, the rulers were not concerned about people's problems and were busy shaping their future. The government was making life difficult for the masses through taxes and blaming the IMF, which was not a reality, he added. The President PEW said that the government had increased its current expenses by 24 per cent, for which the right to live has been taken away from the people and the salaried class.

According to a recent survey, 94 per cent of people want to leave the country because they don't see anything here. He asked what the country's future would be if 94% of the people wanted to flee. He said there was no justice in imposing a withholding tax on flour, a 55% regulatory duty on potato import and a 15% regulatory duty on imported used clothes. Instead, he said, it would have been better if tax was imposed on big properties and mansions worth billions of rupees. Dr. Mughal said that everyone was raising their voices against IPPs. However, many still consider power plant facilitators their leaders and saviours. The government was spending almost Rs 5000 per month on each child's education, of which nearly half goes to ghost schools, ghost teachers and corruption, he observed. The President PEW said that if the public schools were abolished, this capital was given directly to the poor so they can educate their children in private schools.

In that case, the educational condition of the new generation can be greatly improved, he noted. He said tens of millions of children were out of school in Pakistan. In contrast, 78% of children around ten cannot even read or write a few sentences, which indicates the standard of education in Pakistan. The people who use electricity are compelled to pay exorbitantly enormous sums of money for even a single unit of power they consume beyond each slab. Dr Murtaza Mughal said that there was a possibility that inflation will continue to rise, unemployment will continue to be a problem, and the gap between the wealthy and the rest of the population may widen in the coming months. Currently, 470 billion rupees of Chinese companies are stuck in Pakistan, and the lives of their experts are also constantly in danger. Despite this grim situation, they were expected to invest in Pakistan, which was amazing, he said, adding that Chinese companies will never go beyond memorandums of understanding under these unstable circumstances.

Credit: Independent News Pakistan