Pakatan throws fresh challenge to debate budget

Pakatan Rakyat has yet again issued a call to Barisan National youth leaders to a debate the Budget 2013 presented by the prime minister last Friday.

The challenge came in the wake of Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak’s no-show during Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim 90-minute debate of the budget in Parliament yesterday.

In a statement, Pakatan said the invitation for the debate was directed at BN youth leaders such as BN youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin Abu Bakar, Kota Belud MP Abdul Rahman Dahlan, Chua Tee Yong or P Kamalanathan, “if they dared”.

"Pakatan persist with our invitation for BN representatives to dare to defend their economic stance while fielding questions from the rakyat, instead of merely having the courage to only debate on live television or in the Dewan Rakyat,” it said.

The debate, it further said in the joint statement, is to be held during Pakatan Budget 2013 open forum on Wednesday at 8.30pm at the Petaling Jaya Community Library.

The joint statement was issued by said Pas central committee member Dzulkifly Ahmad, DAP election strategist Ong Kian Ming and PKR director of strategy Rafizi Ramli.

[More to follow]