LAHORE - Terming the budget 2014-15 anti-people, the two political parties, PML-Q and PAT, foresee massive public support to their upcoming anti-government drive aimed at reforming the system.
Senior leaders of PML-Q and PAT, talking to The Nation on Wednesday, claimed that the anti-people budget for 2014-15 would compel the populace to join the forthcoming Q-PAT anti-government drive to reform the system.
PML-Q and PAT top leaderships, during a meeting in London some days back, agreed to launch an anti-government drive to achieve a 10-point agenda to reform the system in an effort to provide relief to the masses, eradicate corruption and introduce electoral reforms.
Both the parties, while foreseeing the possible protest against the new budget, especially by the labour organisations, have planned to exploit this opportunity to their benefit during the anti-government drive.
Raja Basharat and Seemal Kamran, senior PML-Q leaders, said all the labour organisations would be on roads against the new budget, while the protest of the labour community would be joined by their party.
They said PML-Q was contacting other political forces to join hands with them to topple the regime which has failed on all fronts completely, while the people protesting the new budget would join the Q-PAT upcoming anti-government drive as they would need leadership to achieve their goals.  PAT senior leader Khurram Nawaz Gandapur, sharing the views of Basharat and Seemal, said they too would support protest against the anti-people document. They were sure that the people would join the Q-PAT drive to dethrone the incumbent rulers and bring a real revolution in the country to reform the system.
He said the masses would join the Q-PAT initiative which, he claimed, would be launched to materialize the people’s dream.
The leaders of both PML-Q and PAT were confident that the people already facing a lot of problems like loadshedding, unemployment, terrorism and price hike would surely join the Q-PAT anti-government drive.
Meanwhile, PTI Punjab President Ijaz Chaudhry has said that the budget 2014-15 offered nothing to the working classes, while the budget speech of the federal finance minister was like a funny tale which, instead of focusing on the proposed budgetary allocations, mentioned the development projects of the ruling party in the Punjab.  When asked about the participation of various groups in the movement against the new budget, he said PTI was of the considered opinion that the budget was not poor-friendly and it was their right to struggle for their genuine demands, so his party would support them.
About joining hands with PML-Q and PAT which were planning to exploit the anti-budget protest to give a boost to their upcoming anti-government drive, Ijaz said PTI would morally support all the political forces struggling for reforming the system.  He claimed that PTI did not want to exploit the movement of any other group for its own political benefit as tsunami of Imran Khan possessed enough strength to press the rulers for reforms.
He, however, added the PTI would welcome any political party or individual joining them for pushing forward the electoral reforms campaign.
Commenting upon the budget 2014-15, he said it had failed to decrease the prices of basic commodities. He said the farming sector was once again not on the priority list in a country which depended on the farming sector, while the new budgetary allocations had deprived the masses of their right to live instead of providing relief to them.  Ijaz said the budgetary proposals should be reconsidered and amended by taking into consideration the needs of the poor people.