ISLAMABAD: Former premier and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Shahid Khaqan Abbasi said on Saturday that the federal budget 2019-20 has disappointed the general public of Pakistan as heavy taxes have been imposed on them.

“Till today, the prime minister hasn’t spoken of the country’s development,” he said as the session of the National Assembly (NA) resumed.

“[The countries] where transparent elections aren’t held, there couldn’t be any development or prosperity,” he said, adding that budgets are meant to set priorities for ensuring relief for the public and concessions to businesses.

“This budget is nothing less than increasing hardships for the people and imposing new taxes on them,” he went on to say.

Abbasi said in the last ten months, the no development has been observed in Pakistan and that despite of supplementary grants, no free and fair election could be held in the country.

“Today is the time that we should learn from our past mistakes…and we are searching for a new word other than ‘selected’,” he concluded. —NNI