- Raja Pervaiz, meeting of Asad Qaiser held in Parliament.
- The PPP chef assures Qaiser to transmit PTI’s offer to Bilawal.
- Ex-PM confirms PPP reservations on the Fy26 budget.
Islamabad: Pakistan Tehreek-e-insaf (PTI) contacted the Pakistani peoples (PPP) party on Monday and revealed that the former ruling party will support the coalition partner if he decides to boycott the vote on the budget for the year 2025-26.
The former president of the National Assembly and the main leader of the PTI, Asad Qaiser, held a meeting with Raja Pervaiz Ashraf of the PPP in Parliament today.
During the meeting, Qaiser said he had heard rumors about the boycott of the budget bilawal bilawal party. “If the PPP is serious, then PTI would support it to boycott the budgetary vote,” he added.
Ashraf assured Qaiser that he would present the offer of the former ruling party to President Bilawal Bhutto Zardari when he reaches parliament.
Addressing the journalists of the Parliament, Ashraf confirmed that he had met the head of the PTI; However, he denied having held any discussion to boycott the budget.
He continued by saying that his party is an outgoing government coalition partner, but has reservations and recommendations.
“Today, our parliamentary committee held a session in which recommendations were presented and the participants expressed their concerns on certain issues.”
“The Sindh and Punjab MNA also have reservations,” said the PPP legislator, adding that they would discuss concern with the government.
During the Senate session today, the Senator of the PTI Ali Zafar announced that the legislators of his party would not vote for the federal budget and alleged that the fiscal strategies proposed “would lead to a disaster in Pakistan” because they imposed “42% of new taxes”.
He said wages and pensions have been reduced due to the taxation of taxes. Zafar has also criticized the government for solar panels and the electronic commerce sector.
It was of the opinion that an 18% sales tax would divert all companies to the informal sector. The senator suggested reducing the 9% sales tax to increase economic growth.
“We reject this budget,” said Zafar and added that the budget had not given a development roadmap. He also criticized the decision to grant the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to arrests such as police forces.
Last week, the Minister of Finance and Revenues Muhammad Aurangzeb presented the budget for the next fiscal year with a total expenditure of 17.57 billions of rupees, setting a target of GDP of 4.2% and announcing relief measures for the salaried class while global federal expenses are reduced by 7%.
He projected a deficit of 3.9% of GDP against the 5.9% target for 2024-25. Inflation was projected at 7.5% and growth at 4.2%.
