Nawaz refuses to take privileges announced in 2012-13 budget

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President Nawaz Sharif has refused to take the protocol and privileges announced in the national Finance Bill 2012-13.
He was addressing a seminar on “Pakistan Economy from Present Crisis to Growth and Prosperity” at a local hotel on Sunday. He said the present government had totally failed on all fronts, including energy crisis, inflation, poverty, unemployment, health and illiteracy in the last four and half years. Nawaz was of the view that the current budget had nothing, but it was only another fraud with the poor people of the unfortunate country. He said that more than 300 percent increase had been recorded in the last 12 years in the prices of commodities.
He said that during his terms as chief minister and prime minister, he did not import any bullet-proof luxury cars, but worked to rooted out corruption from the country. He said the economy of Pakistan was growing tremendously in 1997, and that other regional states were following his economic policies in their own countries. Nawaz said that the foreign direct investment was at the lowest in the present times, while debt had risen to a record Rs 1,246 billion in the last four years. He said that Pakistan was the only nuclear-capable state which was facing energy crisis due to which its economy is close to a collapse.
PML N leader Ishaq Dar was of the view that the prevailing energy crisis could be ended in a few hours, but it needed political will. He said that due to the lack of governance in all state institutions, Pakistan had become a failed state. He said that the 2012-13 budget was over-estimated as there was a wide gap between projected government expenditures and earnings.
Other PML-N leaders, including Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Khurram Dastagir and Ahsan Iqbal, said that Rs 1,500 billion tax money of the poor had been wasted to run eight public sector entities. They were of the view that despite Rs 1,200 billion subsidy in the last four years to PEPCO, energy shortage was still the biggest problem of the country hampering the economy and forcing investors to transfer their businesses out of Pakistan.