Pakistan Tehreek-e-insaf (PTI) rejected the Federal Budget 2025-26 inside and outside the National Assembly on Tuesday, calling it a “budget dictated by the IMF” which lacks public legitimacy and launching a two-steal attack: an aggressive demonstration on the soil of the Assembly and a sharp press conference shortly after.
The second consecutive budgetary discourse of the Minister of Finance began under fire, the opposition benches bursting into a noisy demonstration of the exit.
While the Minister of Finance Muhammad Aurangzeb began to unveil the budget, PTI legislators got up, hit books on their desk, whistled and have brandished posters calling for the release of former Prime Minister Imran Khan.
Throughout the presentation, they chanted slogans against the government, marking the illegitimate and anti-puple budget. Without being discouraged by the tumult, the Minister of Finance continued, while the members of the Treasury put on headphones to listen to the noise of the opposition.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who entered the house in the middle of the agitation, remained sitting and flawless, while the legislators of the ruling party formed a protective cord around him to avoid any direct confrontation with the Protestant members.
The head of the opposition to the National Assembly, Omar Ayub Khan, led by the front, giving the tone to a coordinated demonstration and ensuring that each PTI legislator played their role.
Stay on his feet throughout the session, he has repeatedly criticized the budget book on his desk and reported to the other members to stay engaged. The legislators have torn papers and threw them into the air at intervals.
After the initial explosion, the members of the opposition moved en masse to the area between the speaker’s office and the Prime Minister’s seat, continuing their choir of slogans without leaving room.
The disturbance echoed the tense scenes of last year’s budgetary session, when the Minister of Finance’s first speech was faced with an equally turbulent reception of the Council legislators who have become of the Sunni.
Then, as now, the demonstrations included a strong song, an office slammer, a paper madness and a proximity to the siege of the PM, encouraging the members of the Treasury to act as a human shield.
Shortly after the session, the senior PTI officials, including the leader of the year’s opposition, Omar Ayub, the central secretary of central information Sheikh Waqas Akram, the secretary general of PTI Salman Akram Raja and the head of the opposition to the Senate Shibli Faraz, addressed a joint press conference, reiterating their categorical budget rejection.
“It is not a popular budget; it is a budget of the IMF designed to serve elite interests,” said the opposition chief.
Ayub questioned the government’s economic assertions, in particular the growth of the expected GDP of 2.7%, and asked for sarcastically: “Who counted donkeys and did they make differences between the four legs and the two legs?”
He rejected the budget as detached from reality, pointing to the deepening of inequalities, inflation and the decline in industrial production.
The PTI information secretary was more scathing, qualifying the budget of “economic gallows” for the people, claiming that it was not a budget for the nation rather a public execution plan. He added that PTI considers that it is a “leela budget” – involving the budget is a farce that ultimately sacrifices ordinary people like slaughter in slaughter while the interests of the elite are protected.
He questioned the logic behind the relief of the tokens for the salaried class and warned that the development allowances were not realistic and not sincere.
The head of the opposition in the Senate, Shibli Faraz, added that the government had broken all the former records in elitist budgeting.
The head of the opposition in the Senate said that the budgets have been made for the ruling class for decades, but that this year’s budget has broken all previous records in the budgeting of the elites. Criticizing the government, Faraz said: “When such legislation and budgetary manufacturing take place in Parliament, it is not only undemocratic but hostile to the interest of the country.”
Faraz also noted that the Afghan currency had appreciated more than the Pakistani roupie, calling it as an indicator of the government’s failure. “When a government comes to power through the forms-47, it does not have the necessary confidence in serious reform,” he said, warning that economic manipulation without legitimacy would not bring progress.
Addressing the media, Faraz condemned the government’s treatment of inflation and taxation, in particular for employees. He pointed out that the salaried class was tirelessly tight, declaring: “As much blood as one can draw from them is being fired.”
He asked how a country could progress while functioning what he described as “IMF crutches”.
Faraz also criticized the state’s response to the peaceful requests of government employees, noting that when civil servants began to protest against their rights, the entire red zone of Islamabad was sealed.
“Those who ask for their legal rights are treated as if they do something bad,” he said. PTI secretary general, Salman Akram Raja, described the document as the one who “makes the rich richer and the poor poorer”, saying that the salaried and the poor were more overwhelmed.
All the leaders also reiterated their request for the release of the founder of PTI, Imran Khan and his wife, describing their incarceration as illegal and politically motivated. They called the illegitimate legislative process and demanded the restoration of the constitutional order, the public mandate and the rule of law.
Earlier, the demonstration in the Assembly followed a detailed discussion in strategy during the meeting of the PTI parliamentary party, which took place a few hours before the session. The party rejected the 2025-26 budget, which described it as a continuation of policies dictated by the IMF.
The legislators reiterated their position that the current government had no mandate to present the budget, arguing that it had been formed by manipulated electoral results and did not reflect the will of the people.
In its official declaration, the parliamentary party PTI declared that the government had no legal or moral power to legislate on behalf of the public. “This is an IMF budget, not a popular budget,” said the party, promising to resist its adoption at each forum, including both the National Assembly and the Senate. He condemned the economic difficulties facing ordinary citizens, declaring that even if the poor were crushed under inflation, the ruling elite continued their sumptuous lifestyles without control.
The party also expressed a strong disapproval of the conduct of the president of Na Sardar Ayaz Sadiq, accusing him of acting as a partisan figure rather than a neutral goalkeeper of the house.
The legislators demanded that the speaker act in accordance with his constitutional role rather than serving the interests of the parties. It was also decided during the meeting that a privileged motion would be moved if the opposition speeches continued to be censored on national programs.
PTI legislators have also decided to raise the question of the media failure on their speeches in the Assembly and protest outside if necessary.
