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Kicking off debate on the budget in the National Assembly, Opposition Leader Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan did not find any thing positive for common man and described it as the “budget of the Baboos” that has been presented without consultation of Parliament.

In his 60-minute speech, Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan focused on bad governance that haunted Zardari-Gilani since its formation and also on how the government put the resolution of in-camera joint sitting of parliament into a dustbin.

Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan accused the government of remaining busy in pleasing the “man in uniform”, saying that it astonished him to see during the in-camera session of the joint sitting of both the Houses of Parliament how the treasury benches were thumping the desk to please the military.

He said after the passage of six days of the Parliament’s resolution, all the civil and military leadership of the country bowed before the US secretary of State. He said no other country has to take a decision whether the forces has to go into Fata or not. “Who gave permission for drone attacks and allowed to another country to use its airbase.

It was first time, Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan came hard on Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani for ignoring the Parliamentary resolution on May 2 incident and focusing on Multan Packages. “The prime minister doesn’t seem ready to face Parliament,” he said while indirectly pointing out the absence of the prime minister during his speech. He also described the government as a security risk for the country, saying that “The country’s defence in the hands of the present rulers is not safe.”

He expressed his dismay over not consulting him for the formation of the Abbottabad Probe Commission. “Parliament did not pass the resolution that you put it under your feet,” he said. The opposition leader said the present rulers were used to creating hurdles in the way of independent judiciary in the country, and now they also started to create hurdles in the implementation of the parliamentary resolution.

He questioned the repeated claim of the government of having five year mandate to govern, saying the people did not give them the country on contract to enjoy the rule but they were given mandate to end power loadshedding, eliminate terrorism and to provide relief to the people. “It is not a Pakistan of Asif Ali Zardari or PPP but of Shahzad Saleem and Wali Khan Babar,” he added.

He said President Zardari is playing Sindh card for his own interests. While mentioning resolution of joint assembly session, he was of the view that he had handed it over to the government sincerely, but it was distorted. He said that government was issuing contradictory statements about drone attacks.

He said the month of May was an important month in which major incidents of May 2 US operation in Abbottabad, attack on Mehran base, but the ruler kept a complete silence on these issue. “When Asif Ali Zardari feels any issue relating to him, then he plays the Sindh Card and talks of pen and gun conspiracies, but he chose to remain silent on the issue of May 2 incident and even Prime Minister Gilani didn’t address the nation on May 2 incident,” he said.

He said a person in the Presidency chose a foreign media to tell that it was a great success of the US to launch an operation in Abbottabad. “It seems that the rulers were living in another Pakistan, and the common man in other Pakistan,” he added.

Justifying the opposition protest in the National Assembly during the budget speech of Finance Minister Dr Abdul Hafeez Sheikh, he said the opposition only registered the protest to show the government what was going on in the streets of the country.

Speaking on demise of Ilays Kashmiri, he said that the nation was being befooled. The government is unable to distinguish between the right and wrong. “The entire nation has been thrown back into dark ages without keeping in view the very consequences of their future,” he added.

He said the Interior Minister has a given a contradictory statements on the killing of Ilyas Kashmiri, saying that once he said he was 100 percent assured that he was killed and on other day he stated that he was 98 percent sure that Ilyas Kashmiri was killed. “Please tell the truth to the nation and speak a truth with nation,” he added.

The opposition leader said the present rulers did not give any good news to the people for last three and an half years.

He said the government failed to achieve targets fixed for the current financial year. “Manufacturing, agriculture and services sectors have shown deterioration while inflation has crossed the target of 9.1 percent to reach 14.5 percent,” he added.

He proposed setting up of a monitoring committee of the House to ensure implementation of the budgetary proposals and submit report in the House after every three months. Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan maintained that the budget contains no worthwhile point for welfare of the masses.

He referred to the 15 percent increase in the salaries of the government employees and said this was not sufficient if seen in the backdrop of rising inflation. Similarly, employees constitute a small portion of the population and what the government has done for other people?” he added.

He said shortfall of electricity has gone up to 6,000MW. Gas loadshedding has also begun and angry people were protesting every now and then. In his responding speech, Raja Pervaiz Ashraf from the treasury benches saw nothing evil in the country and economic indicators in right direction.

He said the leader of the opposition talked about all issues except the budget. He said Pakistan is in a state of war, which has telling effect on the economy, but despite this, the finance minister was able to present a budget that meets expectations of the people to a great extent.

He pointed out that the government had to manage its revenues and expenditure in a balanced manner. He said the leader of the opposition should have offered concrete suggestions to improve the budgetary proposals.