Overview
- The federal budget for 2026–27, presented Friday, sets total outlays at 175 کھرب روپے and offers stepped income‑tax cuts for salaried earners plus a 7% raise in government salaries and pensions.
- Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb proposed cutting the withholding tax on foreign credit and debit card transactions from 5% to 0.5% and introduced multiple lower income‑tax rates to ease the tax burden on middle and upper‑middle earners.
- President Asif Ali Zardari gave assent to the Pakistan International Airlines (Conversion) (Repeal) Bill, completing a legal step toward PIA privatization that the government says is central to its reform and revenue plan.
- Parliamentary session saw sharp political friction as PTI staged a walkout and threatened a boycott while demanding access to Imran Khan, and business and civic groups responded unevenly with real‑estate interests welcoming the budget and traders and transporters warning it gives little relief to the poor.
- The budget is packaged with broader governance moves — a Pakistan Railways strategic roadmap, a pledged commission for missing persons, and WAPDA push for water and power investment — that aim to attract private and foreign capital but face implementation risks given public economic strain and political contestation.