The Pakistan government on Friday unveiled its budget and pledged to narrow the deficit, but the announcement was overshadowed by opposition lawmakers shouting slogans and scuffles broke out. The $31-billion budget for the financial year beginning July 1 sees a 6.8 percent increase in defence spending, as Pakistan battles Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked militants in its northwestern tribal belt.
Finance Minister Abdul Hafeez Shaikh was surrounded by 25 to 30 opposition parliamentarians who filled the space between his podium and the speaker's dais, heckling and shouting through his speech, an AFP reporter said.
The opposition are furious about power cuts and alleged corruption.
Parliamentarians traded blows and slaps, as they pushed and shoved each other on the parliament floor, grabbing each other's clothing.
Shaikh said the budget gap would be brought down to 4.7 percent of gross domestic product.
On Thursday, the finance minister was forced to announce that the economy had missed its target growth rate of 4.2 percent to grow by only 3.7 percent in the current fiscal year, which ends June 30.
"We recognise the importance of fiscal restraint and the need for fiscal balance," Shaikh said.
External forecasts predict the deficit will nudge seven percent of GDP for this fiscal year and analysts warn the government is running out of ways to fund it.
The minister said that despite floods in 2010 and 2011, the unpopular government of President Asif Ali Zardari had managed the economy without more funding from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
"Rather we have repaid $1.2 billion of the loan amount," he said.
Shaikh did not mention the allocation for defence, but budget documents put the sum at 545 billion rupees ($5.7 billion) as compared to 510 billion rupees this financial year.
But it is power cuts that are piling the pressure on Zardari and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, who may have to call early elections.
Pakistan suffers from a massive energy crisis that cripples industry and leaves millions of people suffering during the hot summers and chilly winters.
"End load shedding!" the opposition cried. "This government is stealing electricity!" they shouted, as well as "people want electricity, water and gas".
Information minister Qamar Zaman Kaira said that the "opposition wants to derail the system".
"The entire nation is ashamed at the attitude of an opposition who has nothing at stake," Kaira told reporters after the chaotic budget speech.
The rupee on Thursday sank to its lowest level of 93.8350 against the dollar as Pakistan's central bank was forced to deny it would have to return to the IMF for assistance.
The currency slid 0.9 percent after The Wall Street Journal quoted the central bank governor as saying that failure to control the deficit could make it hard to meet the more than $4 billion in IMF loans due in the coming fiscal year.
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