ISLAMABAD    -    Though the PDM's govern­ment will get the mini-budget approved from the parliament next week, yet it has been fac­ing severe criticism by the thin opposition currently present in the lower house of parliament. 

The lawmakers from oppo­sition and government include dissidents of GDA, MQM-P, PPP and PTI who lambasted the government over intro­ducing the rain of new taxes.

They came with weird pro­posals for the government, which is striving to stave off 'default' by unlocking the deal with the IMF. 

In their suggestions load­ed with sarcastic remarks, the lawmakers challenged Min­ister for Finance Ishaq Dar to make budget of a person having earning of Rs50,000. “Impose tax on ‘bitter’ (taste) drinks instead of levying tax on sugary drinks,” comment­ed GDA’s MNA Saira Bano, adding that the members of treasury benches from PPP were holding ‘Mehn­gai March’ (March against price-hike) but now they were equally part of pro­posing taxes. “Of course, I won’t see my country go in to default but at the same time this inflation by im­posing taxes is unbearable,” she said. A PTI’s dissident MP Afzal Dhandala on his turn came up with strange proposals to deal with in­flation. He said the lights in the markets should be switched off in the evening as customers have no pur­chasing power to visit shop­ping markets. He stressed the need to focus on agricul­ture and population control. He called for strengthening public transport and reduc­ing car imports. A member from treasury benches/PPP MNA Qadir Khan Mandokha­il asked the government to decrease the burden on the poor and instead hike tax­es on luxury cars and hous­es. MQM-P MNA Salahud­din, on his turn, came down hard on the Finance Minis­ter for not turning up in the house. “If MQM-P is your al­lied partner, the only reason now is to prevent default,” he claimed. The house saw very thin presence through­out the proceedings.