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Taking part in a general discussion on the federal budget in the Pakistan National Assembly, lawmakers from the opposition and the treasury benches castigated the Imran Khan-led government for 'neglecting' the agriculture sector and asked it to announce a comprehensive agriculture policy.
According to Dawn, some treasury members also expressed concern over the law and order situation, electricity load-shedding and price hike in Pakistan, besides taking their own government to task over allocation for the agriculture sector. Moreover, even Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed demanded that electricity charges should be reduced and steps should be taken to reduce price hike. The opposition members termed the budget a "fraud with the people of Pakistan" and the treasury members dubbed it "the best and growth-oriented budget" in the present scenario amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The opposition members belonging to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan lashed out at the governments of the two provinces. The most hard-hitting speech was delivered by the ruling PTI member from Rajanpur, Riaz Mazari, against his own party's federal government and provincial government in Punjab, reported Dawn. Mazari said that poor people had been "crushed" under the price hike, adding that either it was because of the previous governments or because the incumbent government had no capacity to resolve the issue. "I will request the government to bring down price hike," he said. He also highlighted that his constituency had become a "no-go area" as though five IGs of Punjab police had been changed, robbers were still roaming in the area freely. He said that he had taken up the issue with Prime Minister Imran Khan and Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar in the presence of the inspector general of police, but to no avail. Meanwhile, PTI MNA from Charsadda Fazal Mohammad Khan blasted his own party's government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, saying the local officials had issued him completion certificates of 10 development projects in his constituency, but on ground, only three projects had been completed, Dawn reported. Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz's (PML-N) Bashir Virk regretted that no person affiliated to the agriculture sector had become the country's finance minister. "This is the house of agriculturists. But we make decisions after taking dictation from bureaucrats and technocrats," he said. Furthermore, Pakistan People Party's (PPP) Hassan Tariq regretted that no subsidy had been announced for seeds and fertilisers. The National Assembly witnessed a chaotic situation over the past few days due to the federal budget passed by Prime Minister Imran Khan's government, which has been slammed by many. (ANI)
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