Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf leader Asad Umar slammed the incumbent government for imposing new taxes on the industrial sectors, saying that the taxes on the production sectors would further increase inflation and unemployment.

“The budget can be challenged in the court if the debate is not held over it in the Senate,” Umar said while addressing a press conference in Islamabad on Friday.

As the budget has been finalized,the government should provide 14 days for the budget debate in the upper house of the Parliament, he added.

Earlier in the day Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had announced a 10% “super tax” on big industries in a bid to provide relief to the common man. The premier, in a long, recorded speech, briefed the nation about the decisions of the economic team. He described the new levies as “poverty alleviation tax”.

Umar said that the Senate should be allowed to debate so that it could present its reservations and proposals regarding the budget. “If the government does not allow the budget debate, then the budget would be unconstitutional.

“It is for the first time that a budget was announced after imposing tax worth billion rupees from outside the Parliament House,” he said.

He rejected the government’s notion that the country was near bankruptcy when the incumbent government came into power. The PTI government had raised the foreign reserves to $16.4 billion from $9.7 billion when we took charge back in 2018, he said.

Blaming the previous PML-N government for the deteriorating economy, he said that the last PML-N government had ruined the economy.

“Imran Khan’s government had put the economy back on track but the ‘imported government’ is once again destroying it,” Umar said, adding that foreign reserves had fallen by around 50% since PTI’s ouster from power.

The PTI leader said that after increasing the prices of petrol by Rs84 per litre, diesel by Rs120 per litre, electricity by 40 per cent, and gas by over 45 per cent, the government was still not sure that the deal with the IMF could be finalized. “The prime minister was saying that the deal will be finalized if the IMF does not bring forth new conditions,” he added.

Umar, who had the portfolios of finance and later planning and development, said that the upcoming year’s budget was an attack on the sector that was providing growth and employment. “Following the premier’s announcement, the stock market crashed by over 2000 points.”

He also lashed out at the government for approving amendments in the NAB law. “Shehbaz Sharif does not stand for providing relief to the common people. Shehbaz Sharif stands for corruption.”