The word budget is horrible, terrible and enigmatic. It comes every year like lightening and thunder and vanish into thin air, providing an opportunity to the business community to squeeze the last drop of blood of people. Those who govern have no time to listen or see the misery of common man. Antagonists in the parliament instead of exposing the jugglery of figures in the budget document, perform the ritual of abusing and accusing their opponents in an effort to hoodwink their voters. The prices of daily items go up while wages come down. The underground economy flourishes. Few prosper at the cost of many. The budget seems to be an instrument of the rich to snatch from the needy to enrich the greedy. It is beyond comprehension why this futile exercise of wasting millions of rupees in the preparation of a vague document every year is made. This document is neither read by those who present it, nor by the lawmakers, who deliver lengthy irreverent speeches to glorify themselves. Thus a huge sum is wasted for nothing. This magic word is a nightmare in slow motion for people at large. During first decade of its creation, the budget used to be called a surplus Budget. Later it changed various names such as deficit budget, Awami budget, people friendly budget without an iota of friendship. People did not get any relief. Now we wonder what has happened to this great country. We still are ignorant or remains to be so, dont admit our follies and blame others for our own shortcomings. We forget that those were the consequences of our own ostentatious ways of spending and stretching limits beyond our means. If the budget was meant to help ourselves within limits and our income and expenditure were to be balanced, the government has completely failed. The approved budget documents are dumped in a government library and offices and its copies distributed to MNAs, perhaps are used as wastepaper. Millions of rupees in the preparation of a useless document can be saved to be used elsewhere. The duty of our free media is to educate people to lead a simple life, buy what they need not what they want. The consumers need to know the law of supply and demand. If people buy what they want instead of what they need, there is likelihood of prices going up. The result is that common man suffers. The PM ought to hold an inquiry as to why various departments of his governments spend more than the budgetary grants. Why they dont follow the intent and purpose of budget passed by the National Assembly. The Honorable Chief Justice, may kindly take suo moto notices of this matter of great public importance where sanctity of a document passed by Parliamentarians is violated by government officials. This step may result in the plugging of great hole in the national exchequer and put our economy on the right track. The media is requested to kindly highlight this important matter, even if it is not in conformity with their own views. RAJA SHAFAAT ULLAH, Islamabad, June 4.