Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairperson Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari criticised the government on Friday saying that as per the economic survey 2021, if nothing else, the population of donkeys has increased during the regime of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) in the country, for which Prime Minister Imran Khan’s policies must be lauded. 

Addressing the National Assembly (NA) a day after Leader of the Opposition Shehbaz Sharif delivered his budget speech, Bilawal slammed the government for presenting a budget that was a “pack of lies”.

PPP chairperson reprimanded the government for abandoning the country’s population during these unprecedented times, saying that the ruling PTI could never realise the problems of a common man.

Bilawal went on to add that people, who were suffering because of the inflation brought on by Khan’s government, were well aware that the claim of four per cent economic growth was nothing but a lie.

He added that the nation might still have forgiven the government had they not “abandoned the people so ruthlessly amid these difficult times”.

“We introduced the revolutionary Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) but this government, on the other hand, persistently talks about the Ehsaas [programme], when you have no realistion [of the people’s predicament].”

He said that people will never forgive the government for further pushing them below the poverty line.

Bilawal said that if the country has seen economic growth, as claimed by the PTI-led government, then why does it have to “beg before the International Monetary Fund (IMF)?”

“If the economy has significantly improved, then the government should immediately opt out of the IMF’s deal,” he said.

Pointing out that the PPP had increased salaries multiple times and raised pensions, he said the PTI had not raised salaries in the last two years even though the entire world was struggling in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic and every Pakistani was facing financial troubles.

The PPP chairperson recalled that the PTI had reached an agreement with government workers on raising their salaries, adding that the insufficient hike in their salaries was an act of deception by the government.

As Minister for Energy Hammad Azhar began his speech in response to Bilawal’s criticism, Shehbaz began making his way out of the assembly, prompting the minister to challenge him to stay and hear him out.

“If you are not cowards then remain in your seats and listen to what I have to say,” said Azhar.

“If you have the strength to hear the truth, then listen to what I have to say,” Azhar said but the PML-N president did not react and exited the house.

Azhar began his speech by hitting back at Bilawal, saying, “Those who have never worked a day in their life or taken any responsibility are telling us how to run the economy and the country.”

Mocking the way Bilawal kept switching between English and Urdu during his speech, Hammad Azhar implied that oratory skills are not enough to remove the stains of corruption from someone’s character.

“They said to us that this is a government of ‘puppets’. Do they want a government of convicts? Do they want a government in which people are known not by their names but by the dirtiest scandals in the history of this country?”

He said that the PTI had come into power after being elected, adding that it had not “threatened or bribed its way into government”.

Azhar said some people in the Opposition say that despite corruption, there is also progressive work being done. “If corruption had anything to do with development, Sindh would have progressed beyond California.”

If someone wants to see the destruction that corruption brings, then go and look at the state of Sindh, the minister said. “You will see how corrupt rulers ruin the lives and the futures of people. Sindh is a living example of this.”