Opposition rejects budget

Says debt ballooned to Rs900 billion from Rs30 billion in nine years

PESHAWAR:

Opposition parties have rejected the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) budget of 2022-23 on Monday and said that facts had been twisted.

Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) has rejected the budget outright and said that in the past nine years the provincial debt had ballooned from 30 billion to Rs900 billion but it was still considered an achievement by the PTI government.

Talking to reporters after the budget session of the K-P Assembly, PML-N spokesperson Ikthiar Wali said that the PTI government completely failed to achieve set targets in the previous budget too.

“Let me tell you the PTI government is responsible for the miseries of the general public in this province,” he said, adding that the fund allocation has been reduced for the merged districts but instead of giving it to the K-P government now it would be spent in the area by the federal government.

“PML-N will unite the Pakhtun people against PTI in the next general elections and Muslim League will win the elections,” he observed.

Wali said that the largest hospital of the province Lady Reading Hospital (LRH) was being run on WhatsApp from the US by a relative of Imran Khan, making it the most mismanaged hospital in the country.

He said that the budget was not a balanced one as targets are set each year by the government that are seldom achieved.

They said that private hospitals have been included in the Sehat Card that charge Rs1.2 million for a minor surgery.

Sardar Hussain Babak of ANP said that the people are hit hard by the unemployment, adding that the PTI government has not contacted the federal government for the rights of the province.

“Our forests have been on fire but no allocation has been made in the budget to solve this issue,” he said.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, June 14^th, 2022.