Spokesman Report

Islamabad: On Tuesday, Dr Murtaza Mughal, President of Pakistan Economy Watch (PEW), said the difference between the major political parties before the budget was not about giving relief to the people; it was about the distribution of resources among legislators.

He said that sixteen billion rupees have been earmarked for development projects in the budget, which will be used to please the members of national and provincial assemblies and supporters.

In a statement issued today, he 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 are not concerned about people’s problems and are busy shaping their future.

He said that the government is making life difficult for the masses through taxes and blaming the IMF, which is not a reality.

Dr Murtaza Mughal 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.

There is 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 is raising their voices against IPPs. However, many still consider power plant facilitators their leaders and saviours.

He informed that the government is spending almost Rs 5000 per month on each child’s education, of which nearly half goes to ghost schools, ghost teachers and corruption.

If the public schools are abolished, this capital is 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 observed.

He said tens of millions of children are 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.

There is 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 are expected to invest in Pakistan, which is amazing, he said, adding that Chinese companies will never go beyond memorandums of understanding under these unstable circumstances.