ISLAMABAD - Pakistan People’s Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari yesterday alleged that Prime Minister Imran Khan was promoting two laws – one for the rich and one for the poor. 

The PPP leader said that in the “new Pakistan’ there was relief for tax evaders through amnesty schemes and inflation for the salaried class of taxpayers.  “Imran Khan’s change is only to reward the rich by snatching subsidies from the poor,” he said, commenting on the country’s situation. 

Bilawal criticized the ‘new Pakistan’ for allegedly having a separate law for the rich and the poor, stating that Imran Khan, who raised the slogan of not two but one Pakistan, created a separate systems for the rich and the poor.  

The PPP chief’s comments came hours after Prime Minister announced that instead of imposing more taxes on the people, “out-of-the-box” solutions for public relief. 

The PM said that a roadmap for economic stability and sustainable growth should be presented. The PTI-led government is also in trouble as several Treasury lawmakers supporting Jahangir Tareen yesterday met Prime Minister Imran Khan and presented their grievances to the Prime Minister on the accountability of their leader.

The Prime Minister reportedly rejected one of their demands of setting up a Judicial Commission in Tareen’s case.

Bilawal said that Imran Khan’s economic initiatives were benefiting only certain capitalist families of the country. 

“The Prime Minister on one hand gives amnesty to his capitalist friends to legalize nameless properties and on the other hand issues ordinance for expensive electricity,” he added. 

He said that capitalists and industrialists in the new Pakistan were benefiting from amnesty schemes and collecting taxes from consumers. 

Bilawal said that the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) had given benefits to 135 rich families amounting up to Rs 43 billion during its tenure in government and the PTI-led government gave amnesty of more than Rs 20 billion to 56 rich families.

The PPP chief raised the question that those who gave amnesty schemes by claiming to bring the rich into the tax net should tell what they did for the common man. 

Expressing concern, he said that more than 80 million ordinary Pakistanis who do not even come under the ambit of income tax are forced to pay up to 12.5 per cent advance income tax on mobile phones. 

The common man is called a tax evader even after paying taxes in various ways, he said.

Bilawal said that the gap between rich and poor was widening due to unequal economic policies in Pakistan. 

He claimed that the PPP was the only party which chalks out economic policies keeping in mind the situation of a common man. 

Meanwhile, the PPP has expressed grave concern over the notices issued to women working in different departments to vacate Fatima Jinnah Hostel where they are living and demanded that the notices be immediately withdrawn.

The Ministry of Housing and Works has issued notices to the working women residing in the Hostel cancelling their allotments with directions to vacate rooms by April 30 without providing any alternate accommodation.

PPP Parliamentarians Secretary General Farhatullah Babar said that the eviction order in the month of Ramazan during pandemic was most insensitive, without precedence and in complete disregard of the vulnerabilities of working women.

“The whimsical order is yet another manifestation of how insensitive the present government is to the issues of women,” he said.

He added: “Instead of providing working women more accommodation and a congenial atmosphere to work the government is throwing them out of the only accommodation available to them in the federal capital.”

Babar asked the Housing Ministry to immediately withdraw the eviction notices ,adding, the PPP will also raise the issue in the Parliament and at all available forums.

The hostel for working women is named after the sister of Quaid-e- Azam Muhammed Ali Jinnah, he said and “throwing out women from it is a great disservice to the memory of Fatima Jinnah.”

He said that the PPP had built Nusrat Bhutto Hostel for working women in the federal capital which was gradually put out of use due to animosity with the Bhutto name just like the name of Benazir Income Support Programme is changed to Ehsas programme. 

“Bhuttos reside in the hearts and minds of people and their memory cannot be erased by such expressions of animosity. If the government cannot improve their lot it should at least not take away from the women whatever little they may have,” he said.