Islamabad: In a critical address during the Senate’s discussion on the Finance Bill 2025–26, Senator Shahadat Awan of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) expressed serious concerns over the proposed budget, calling it insufficient to address Pakistan’s long-term economic and social challenges. While he acknowledged the bill’s potential for short-term stabilization, he firmly stated that it fails to offer sustainable solutions for the country’s deep-rooted structural issues.
Senator Awan pointed out that nearly 47% of the proposed Rs. 17,573 billion budget—equivalent to Rs. 8,207 billion—will be consumed by interest payments on domestic and foreign debt. “How can we label this a welfare or development-oriented budget when nearly half of it is allocated to debt servicing?” he questioned.
Drawing from the World Bank’s figures, Awan lamented that 44.7% of Pakistan’s population—approximately 107 million people—live below the poverty line, surviving on less than Rs. 1,200 per day. He criticized the absence of a clear roadmap to combat poverty and called the current minimum wage of Rs. 37,000 per month grossly inadequate amid rising inflation. The PPP demands the minimum wage be raised to at least Rs. 50,000 and enforced rigorously across both public and private sectors.
The senator also demanded a 150% increase in federal employee salaries to account for inflationary pressures. He called for a substantial boost in pensions under the Employees’ Old-Age Benefits Institution (EOBI), arguing that retired civil servants face severe economic uncertainty without at least a 100% increase.
Turning to agriculture, Awan described a sector in distress. Pakistan witnessed a 13.5% decline in major crop production, including a 13.7% drop in cotton and a 9% decline in wheat yields, attributing it to climate variability and lack of government support. He estimated a loss of Rs. 2,200 billion for farmers over the past year, highlighting the government’s failure to offer any meaningful platform or relief measures for the agricultural community. He further criticized the contradictory tax policies, where imported cotton is tax-free but local cotton seeds are subjected to an 18% GST.
Awan underscored the meager allocations for education and health—just 0.8% and 0.9% of GDP, respectively—saying this betrays the promise of national development. With over 26 million children out of school and no new health projects in the budget, he warned that Pakistan’s youth are being driven abroad due to rising unemployment and lack of opportunities. Downsizing and rightsizing measures are eliminating jobs while new, redundant government bodies are being created, placing additional burdens on taxpayers.
He also criticized the proposed changes to family pensions, reducing the post-death pension period for spouses to 10 years, and called for maintaining tax rebates for teachers and researchers. Additional taxes on logistics providers and solar panels—both key sectors in e-commerce and clean energy—were seen as regressive, with Awan cautioning that such steps would hinder innovation and sustainability.
He strongly opposed the introduction of Section 37AA in the Finance Bill, which gives revenue officers the power to arrest taxpayers and company directors under suspicion of irregularities, calling it a dangerous overreach that would discourage investment and business confidence.
Awan further condemned the slashing of funds across numerous sectors: water resources, environment, education, higher education, sports, narcotics control, food security, and industrial production. Despite repeated promises, major infrastructure projects such as the K-IV water supply project for Karachi and the Sukkur-Hyderabad motorway remain underfunded or delayed.
He concluded by demanding the restoration of critical budgetary allocations, an update to the NFC Award based on the 2023 census, and a national commitment to ensure that no child goes hungry or remains out of school. While he supported the increase in the defense budget following recent border tensions, he urged the government to further enhance it, noting India’s significant military spending.
“Pakistan ranks 109 out of 127 countries on the Global Hunger Index,” Awan declared in closing. “If this budget does not change course, we are not just failing our economy—we are failing our people.”
