PPP will not pass budget without allocation of flood funds: Bilawal Bhutto
PPP Chairman and Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Saturday made it succinctly clear that his party’s approval of the budget for the fiscal year 2023-24 depended on Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s decision to allocate funds for flood victims that were promised last year.
Addressing a rally in Swat, FM Bilawal said: “We have no doubts over the intentions of the prime minister, as he witnessed the destruction with his own eyes. However, we would like to ask him to introspect within his team and hold those hindering this process accountable.If PML-N wants the PPP to vote on the budget then this cannot happen without [funds] for flood reconstruction expenditure and we hope that our demands and reservations about this budget will be soon addressed by [Finance Minister Ishaq] Dar and his team.”
The PPP chairman’s reaction came a day after the party lawmakers, while taking part in the debate on the federal budget in the National Assembly, had assailed the ruling PML-N for not providing promised funds to the Sindh government for rehabilitation and reconstruction of the flood-affected areas and “denying” the province its due share from the tax amount.
Unprecedented flash floods caused by historic monsoon rains killed at least 1,000 people and affected more than 33 million mainly in Sindh, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan last year.
Bilawal, who also holds the portfolio of foreign minister in the federal cabinet, demanded of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to hold those hindering funds for last year’s flood victims accountable.
“The federal government had promised the world and the provincial governments that it would match the funds spent on the flood victims,” he informed a large gathering and added that the PPP had sent its high-level committee members to the prime minister to apprise him of the grievances they felt over the finance bill.
The PPP chairman was referring to the PPP delegation comprising Minister for Commerce Syed Naveed Qamar, Minister for Climate Change Sherry Rehman, Minister for Water Resources Syed Khurshid Shah, Adviser to the PM on Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan Affairs Qamaruz Zaman Kaira, Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah and Senator Nisar Khuro, who called on the prime minister on Friday.
Continuing with his criticism of the budget, Bilawal added, “We have approached our allies to make them understand that it is imperative that we look after the flood victims in our budget.”