ISLAMABAD: Opposition leaders on Sunday rejected the federal budget, accusing the government of ignoring economic realities, burdening citizens with taxes and failing to address rising poverty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThey [rulers] are deceiving themselves,\u201d Senate Opposition Leader Allama Raja Nasir Abbas said while addressing a budget seminar in Islamabad, criticising the government\u2019s claim that a person earning Rs280 a day was not below the poverty line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Discover more<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n World news updates<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n TV & Video<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Showbiz entertainment news<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Abbas said the rulers were \u201cnot ready to see facts with their own eyes\u201d and alleged that the government had failed to provide services to the people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe people of Pakistan are being crushed in the mill of poverty,\u201d he said, adding that prices of food items were \u201ctouching the sky\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Comparing the country\u2019s finances to a household budget, the opposition leader said that when a family\u2019s expenses exceeded its income, it came under the burden of debt and then started selling its assets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cPakistan\u2019s income is less than its expenses,\u201d he said, adding that no serious effort had been made to reduce expenses and increase income.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Abbas also warned that if the next elections were held under the same system, the results would be \u201cthe worst\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Tehreek-e-Tahafuz-e-Ayeen-e-Pakistan leader Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar said the rise in poverty was proof of the failure of economic policies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe real measure of economic growth is improvement in people\u2019s lives,\u201d he said, adding that life had become difficult for low-income groups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Khokhar said a tax system could not be effective without state services, stressing that citizens must be provided with facilities if taxes were being collected from them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cEconomic success is meaningless if poverty is not reduced,\u201d he said, adding that the budget could not succeed without solving public problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He said the government had failed to reduce its own expenses, while heavy taxes continued to be imposed despite a lack of services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n PTI senior leader Salman Akram Raja described the budget as an \u201ceconomic emergency\u201d for Pakistan, saying the country\u2019s economy was trapped in a severe crisis and debt burden.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He said claims of economic development were contrary to reality, while the increase in loans posed a major threat to the country\u2019s future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe federal government is trapped in interest payments,\u201d he said, adding that running the system through loans was not a sustainable solution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Raja said poverty was increasing instead of declining, while Pakistan was far behind in spending on health and education.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cInvestment in human development is necessary for competing globally,\u201d he said, adding that fundamental changes were needed to address the economic crisis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Former prime minister and Awam Pakistan Party leader Shahid Khaqan Abbasi said the last four years had been the worst for Pakistan\u2019s economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He said government expenditure had become larger than development spending, while pension expenses had exceeded the cost of running the government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cInterest and debt payments have started exceeding income,\u201d Abbasi said, adding that the country\u2019s debt was increasing every year and the crisis was becoming more serious.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He said additional taxes had placed a further financial burden on the people, while the government was taking new loans to meet its expenses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Abbasi said budget relief claims appeared far from reality, adding that ordinary Pakistanis were bearing the burden of indirect taxes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He also called for basic reforms in the system, saying investment would not come without rule of law, political stability and policy continuity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jamaat-e-Islami Emir Hafiz Naeemur Rehman said Pakistan had a \u201ccruel tax system\u201d and claimed that the common man was paying 60% taxes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe people get no relief in the budget; only numbers are changed,\u201d he said at a press conference in Islamabad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hafiz Naeem demanded the abolition of the petroleum levy and called for ending capacity charges of independent power producers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He also said funds for MNAs in the Public Sector Development Programme should be abolished and official vehicles should not be above 1300cc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe budget has merely become the name of moving numbers up and down,\u201d he said, adding that electricity, petrol and gas prices directly affected the public.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He said the government itself admitted pressure from the IMF, while large sums had been kept in the budget to hide incompetence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" ISLAMABAD: Opposition leaders on Sunday rejected the federal budget, accusing the government of ignoring economic realities, burdening citizens with taxes and failing to address rising..<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3351,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3350","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pakistan"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/paksouch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/668665_2979452_updates.png",700,400,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/paksouch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/668665_2979452_updates-150x150.png",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/paksouch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/668665_2979452_updates-300x171.png",300,171,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/paksouch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/668665_2979452_updates.png",700,400,false],"large":["https:\/\/paksouch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/668665_2979452_updates.png",700,400,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/paksouch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/668665_2979452_updates.png",700,400,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/paksouch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/668665_2979452_updates.png",700,400,false]},"author_info":{"info":["admin"]},"category_info":"Pakistan<\/a>","tag_info":"Pakistan","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3350","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3350"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3350\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3352,"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3350\/revisions\/3352"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3351"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3350"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3350"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3350"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}‘Budget cannot succeed without solving public problems’<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
‘Budget is sign of economic crisis’<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
‘No serious effort to cut expenses’<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
‘Budget only changes numbers’<\/h2>\n\n\n\n