Legislators from both Houses of parliament expressed mixed reactions towards the federal budget for fiscal year 2011-12 on Thursday, with most of them pitching proposals to the government’s economic team for financial management. In the National Assembly budget debate, Asif Hasnain of the MQM said that social upheavals were increasing fast because of high inflation and the elite was exploiting the poor and the middle class. Sher Mohammed Baloch of the PPP called the budget historic. Riaz Fatyana of the PML-Quaid also congratulated the finance minister and his team for coming up with such a budget. Mehtab Abbasi of the PML-N said that mere requests by the government to the Obama administration to end drone attacks would not work, and “jihad” would have to be waged the way Afghans had resisted against the Russian occupation of their country. Attiya Inayatullah said the country needed to be pulled out of the structural imbalance.
