Nisar lashes out at budget, calls for farm tax

ISLAMABAD: Opposition leader Nisar Ali Khan proposed agriculture tax on behalf of the PML-N as he opened a general debate on the budget in the National Assembly on Tuesday, to be told by a minister that the provinces were free to levy it.

Chaudhry Nisar lambasted the federal budget for 2010-11 as visionless and accused the government of doing little to deal with the country’s major problems such as the price-hike, energy shortages and poverty, climaxing his tirade with a token opposition walkout over perceived failures, including an alleged disregard of Supreme Court rulings and a delay in bringing a new accountability law.

But despite his strong criticism of what he called the “worst record” in the economic field in over two years of Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani’s government, he found “freshness” in soft-spoken Finance Minister Abdul Hafeez Sheikh’s presentation of the