Budget fails to address Covid, locust crises: Bilawal

PPP chairman slams govt for blaming people for virus spread

ISLAMABAD: PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Tuesday said the federal budget proposed for the fiscal year 2020-21 failed to address the challenges posed by the coronavirus pandemic and the locust invasion in the country.

He also accused the PTI-led federal government of hiding behind the viral outbreak to grant benefits to the rich and failing to provide relief to the poor.

“A person is contracting Covid-19 in the country after every 15 minutes,” the scion of the Bhutto dynasty said while speaking on budget in the National Assembly.

“The pandemic is affecting every Pakistani. We’re facing a locust invasion. There is also forecast of devastating floods. Unfortunately, this isn’t the kind of budget that should have been proposed in these circumstances,” he added.

The PPP chairman lambasted the government for increasing government employees’ salaries and pensions in the budget.

He pointed out that when the PPP was in power, it had increased salaries and pensions manifold. “You should cut the salaries of ministers instead of not increasing salaries and pension.”

Bilawal also fired a broadside at the federal government for its “confused” policy to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Who said that Covid-19 is nothing but flu? Who claimed that coronavirus would die out in summer? Who said that a lockdown was not the solution?” he added, referring to the statements of Prime Minister Imran Khan.



“Now you are blaming the people and calling them ignorant. The people will tell you when it’s election time as to who is actually ignorant.”

The PPP chairman said his party had warned about terrorism in the past but it was not taken seriously until the Army Public School Peshawar attack. He added that his father, PPP Co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari, had advised taking steps to deal with a locust invasion but no heed was paid to him.

“Now we were warning about the destruction that will be caused by coronavirus since February but the federal government was unwilling to listen to us.”

Bilawal maintained that the government did not learn from the examples of China, Germany as to how they tackled the disease. We didn’t learn from the mistakes made by Italy. We also didn’t learn from Australia and New Zealand,” he said.

“You will argue that that these are rich countries but you also had the example of Vietnam where not even one life was lost to the disease become they dealt with it collectively as a nation.”

Responding to Bilawal’s criticism, Federal Communications and Postal Services Minister Murad Saeed said the PPP should reflect on its own performance in Sindh.

“Where have all the funds allocated by the Sindh government for the healthcare sector gone?” he asked.

Saeed said the negligence of the PPP-led Sindh government had caused an outbreak of HIV cases in Larkana. He also hit out at the provincial government for the poor state of infrastructure in Karachi.