Bilawal assails 'babu budget', calls for political input to achieve targets

Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari on Tuesday stressed the importance of taking political input in the formation of federal budget 2024-25, saying that is how it will achieve targets. 

Speaking during the National Assembly session, the former minister said, "If there is no political input, your budget will not work. The relief you want to give to the people will not be possible.

"The ground realities that you [politicians across the board] know, none of the 'babu' in Islamabad know about them. Without political input, the budget will by the babus, for the babus and of the babus. And we want to end this tradition," said the PPP chairman. 

The Bilawal-led party, which is the main ally of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), continued to raise objections regarding the federal budget for the upcoming fiscal year starting July 1.

Both the parties held several rounds of talks during which the PPP shared its grievances with the Shehbaz Sharif-led party. A day earlier, sources said the PML-N accepted all demands of its major ally.

Bilawal, during the NA session, said that a politician would never suggest taxing milk or stationary in a country with 40% stunting rate and where 26 million children are out of school, but this would be a "babu's" suggestion.

The politician said he hopes that Prime Minister Shehbaz and his team will be able to get Pakistan out of trouble. "The government has managed to slightly decrease the inflation," he said.

The PPP chairman said that they have so far failed in providing relief to the common people in terms of revenue, adding that every budget emphasises on budget indirectly.

Speaking about the climate change, Bilawal said that this is an issue for the future generations, stressing that this problem should be taken seriously.

He said that Pakistan will have to suffer due to climate change.

Moreover, the former minister said that the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) was used on political grounds. "It is manifesto to abolish NAB and the biggest supporters of NAB may also approve of this step."

NAB is an organisation that harms political institutions and democracy, said Bilawal.