LAHORE – Ameer Jamaat-e-Islami Syed Munawar Hasan said the federal budget did not provide any relief to the masses but had substantially added to the perks and privileges of the parliamentarians and the Presidency.
Talking to different delegations at Mansoora on Sunday, he said that during the last four years of Zardari-Gilani government, the poverty rate had risen to 45 per cent and half of the country’s population was living below the poverty line while the luxuries of the rulers were continuing.
Munawar Hasan said the budget gave no plan to overcome the energy crisis which was the main problem in the country.
 He said that the people were protesting against load shedding while the federal and the Punjab governments were blaming each other.
He lamented the so called war on terror had cost the country around 90 billion dollars of which the US had not paid much. The rulers of this poor country are burdened under heavy debt and were wasting public money on foreign tours and luxuries.
He further added that over 60 million people were unemployed and the government had announced provision of jobs for one lakh which did not materialize. The government was printing currency notes to meet its ever increasing expenditure which was adding to inflation.
JI Secretary General Liaqat Baloch said that 20 per cent raise in salaries and pension for government employees was inadequate in view of the increase in inflation. He said the government had no economic agenda and because of its mismanagement of industrial policy, the country’s economy has gone down the drain. Some of the rich industrialists were transferring their capital to other countries.