Amid strong criticism for disrespecting mandate of parliament, the government indicated its intention to increase the defence budget by 10 per cent and pensions by up to 15pc for the next financial year.
At a joint meeting of the standing committees of the Senate and the National Assembly on Finance and Revenue, Minister for Finance Ishaq Dar and Finance Secretary Dr Waqar Masood presented medium-term budgetary framework (2014-17) and a couple of next year’s budget numbers.
They came under sharp criticism for ignoring the parliamentary committees in consultation process for budget-making, particularly for not convening even a single meeting of the National Assembly’s standing committee on finance for a full year since the PNL-N came to power in June last year.
