PML-N President Shahbaz Sharif and PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Friday said the Opposition would work together and give a tough time to the government, vowing to not let the budget sail through in the National Assembly.
Bilawal, speaking to the media alongside Shahbaz after the parliament's budget session, said that the people who might have been listening to Minister for Finance Shaukat Tarin as he unveiled the government's proposals, "must have been thinking that this is some other country's budget".
Bilawal said it did not sound at all like the budget Pakistan needs, with its "historic inflation, unemployment, and poverty".
"The prime minister and finance minister's claims of economic growth are baseless amid such a situation."
The PPP chairman said the finance ministers' claims were akin to "rubbing salt in the wounds" of the Pakistanis who are "suffering" due to the government's policies.
"All differences among the Opposition parties aside, we will collectively respond to this selected and incompetent government's budget [...] I reiterate my promise that all of PPP's MNAs will entrust their votes to Opposition Leader Shahbaz Sharif to use against this government's budget," he said.
Meanwhile, Shahbaz said the Opposition would join hands and give a tough time to the government during the budget session and will expose their "fudged" figures.
"When poor people are dying of hunger, unemployment and inflation are skyrocketing, how can they claim that the country is witnessing economic growth?" the Opposition leader asked.
Responding to a question, Shahbaz said that the Opposition parties would devise a joint strategy for the no-confidence motion that was moved against NA Deputy Speaker Qasim Suri a day earlier.
