KARACHI: Pakistan Peoples Party chief Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari on Saturday lashed out at the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf government for “bringing a tsunami of inflation” by increasing the prices of virtually every commodity.
Responding to the recent surge in the prices of petroleum products by over Rs12 a litre, bringing it to its highest point in almost a decade, Bilawal said the people were paying the cost of the government’s incompetency.
The PPP Chairman asserted that only a people-friendly government of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) could save the country from the tsunami of inflation. He labelled Prime Minister Imran Khan anti-people.
Meanwhile, senior PPP leaders Sherry Rehman and Nayyar Bukhari have also criticized the government for unleashing a reign of inflation by raising prices of the petroleum products.
The hike in electricity and petroleum prices showed Prime Minister Imran Khan was an enemy of the public, he declared.
A notification issued by the Finance Division Saturday morning said the new price of petrol, effective from October 16 was Rs137.79 a litre while that of high-speed diesel stood at Rs134.48.
The prices of kerosene and light diesel oil were increased by Rs10.95 and Rs8.84 per litre, respectively — reaching Rs110.26 and Rs108.35 per litre, respectively.
The increase was announced a day after oil prices settled at a three-year high above $85 a barrel, boosted by forecasts of a supply deficit in the next few months as the easing of coronavirus-related travel restrictions spurs demand.
Brent crude futures settled up 86 cents, or 1 percent, at$84.86 a barrel. Front-month prices, which touched their highest level since October 2018 at $85.10, hit a weekly rise of 3 percent, its sixth straight weekly gain.
Demand has picked up with the recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic, with a further boost from power generators who have been turning away from expensive gas and coal to fuel oil and diesel.
PML-N TABLES RESOLUTION:
Meanwhile, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) tabled a resolution in Punjab Assembly protesting the latest hike.
The PML-N members of the House rejected the increase in prices, saying the government had developed a routine to increase the cost of petrol every 15 days.
The resolution further demanded the authorities to withdraw the increase.
On the other hand, PML-N leader Shehbaz Sharif blasted the latest hike in petrol prices, calling it “utterly shameful” and saying it would “push people to the brink of starvation”.
“No words to describe the extreme cruelty this selected PTI regime has inflicted on the people in the form of yet another increase in the prices of items of daily use,” he tweeted.
“These latest hikes along with petrol bomb will push people to the brink of starvation. Utterly shameful!”
PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz lashed out at the price increase, calling it a “calamity” that had fallen on the people like a “lightning bolt”.
“When petrol and diesel become expensive then your electricity, wheat, bread, vegetables and everything become expensive,” she explained.
PML-N central spokesperson Marriyum Aurangzeb said the incompetent government was not worried at all about the problems of the people.
She also predicted the cost of gas, flour, sugar, medicine, milk and other basic commodities will further increase.
The poverty-stricken people were unable to manage their livelihood due to the rising inflation, she added.
Aurangzeb was of the view the time had come to send the government of Prime Minister Khan packing.
PML-N Punjab President Rana Sanaullah Khan urged the nation to take to the streets to protest rising inflation. He also demanded Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) to hold a long march.
Meanwhile, PSP Chairman Syed Mustafa Kamal criticised the federal government for raising the price of petroleum products, which he said was akin to forcing the common man up against the wall.
“This has been repeated so many times that it now sounds strange even to say that the government does not [care for the common man],” he said while delivering a media talk in Karachi. “Forget giving them 10m jobs, the ones who already had jobs are now unemployed as well. This hike in prices of petroleum products [would make] the life of a common man go from bad to worse. You don’t give gas in the winters and electricity in the summers so the common man has been forced against the wall.”
