PTI rejects Pakistan's federal budget, calls it 'elite self-preservation'

Pakistan's main opposition party, PTI, has vehemently rejected the federal budget for the fiscal year 2026-27. The party's Secretary Information, Sheikh Waqas Akram, described the budget as a "refined exercise in elite self-preservation." Akram pointed to the Pakistan Economic Survey, which indicated a decline across sectors compared to the PTI's previous tenure.

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PTI rejects the federal budget for FY2026-27, terming it a “refined exercise in elite self-preservation”.

He criticized the government's projected 3.7 percent growth rate as a "modest achievement" compared to the nearly 6 percent growth recorded during the global pandemic under PTI. Akram argued that the current government relies heavily on remittances and foreign borrowing, offering little tangible benefit to the local economy. He also highlighted a "sharp and conspicuous reversal" in poverty, pushing millions below the subsistence line.

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The present government, with characteristic modesty, treats its modest achievement as a historic breakthrough, while relying heavily on remittances, foreign borrowing, and factors that deliver little tangible benefit to those who live and work within the economy.

Akram further stated that the budget acknowledges recent burdens from oil price increases and flood losses but only offers "targeted subsidies" because broader relief became too expensive. He noted that the salaried class, already heavily taxed, faces diminishing real incomes while relief measures primarily benefit higher income brackets and select businesses. The budget, he added, offers nothing substantive for common citizens or small businesses, who will face new tax regimes and intensified digital invoicing requirements.

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The poorest sections of society are now left to manage as best they can, their circumstances made considerably more difficult by conditions this budget claims to have mastered.