Shaan Shahid defends Imran Khan over petrol prices hike

The surge in Petroleum prices triggered a twitter spat between showbiz stars as top Pakistani actor Shaan Shahid took to task fellow actors Aijaz Aslam and Fahad Mustafa for trolling Prime Minister Imran Khan defending the hike in prices of Petroleum products.

It may be mentioned that federal government jacked up prices of petroleum products by Rs9 to Rs12 per litre in the wake of the post-Covid economic recovery worldwide.

The Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin reassured that petrol prices had hiked in Pakistan only because they had surged globally but actors Aijaz Aslam and Fahad Mustafa weren’t convinced. Now, Minister of Information and Broadcasting, Fawad Chaudhry, along with actor Shaan Shahid are reinstating the same for those trolling Prime Minister Imran Khan.

Aslam had tweeted, “There’s a race between petrol, dollar and pound. Petrol is trying to catch the dollar and dollar is running to match the pound… Tabdeeli is in full swing.” In response, a user argued, “Someone reading any good newspaper would [be able to tell you] that petrol prices are rising internationally, stop [this] cheap political point scoring.” However, Aslam maintained that “everyone is aware of the facts but there are numerous other factors making life miserable for a common man, think from their perspective too.”

While Mustafa shared a sarcastic post reading, “If he wanted he could’ve increased Rs20 but he chose to increase only Rs10.49. Now that’s what you call a leader!” In response, when a user a commented, “Dear Sir, ab thora sa ghabra len?” Fahad re-tweeted and wrote, “Thora nahi, ab khul ke ghabrayen.” When another netizen tweeted, “Fahad woke up today and chose violence,” the Load Wedding star quipped, “Violence requires fire but it appears we can’t even afford that now.”

But Shahid, who understood that being a net importer of petroleum products, Pakistan was bound to be directly impacted by the soaring oil prices globally, silenced a troll who had shared an old Imran Khan quote, “When electricity and petrol prices rise, understand that your prime minister is a thief.” The Waar actor wrote, “The prices of crude oil per barrel has gone up… the rise is global.”

While responding to the outrage, the minister stated that the propaganda about the rise in prices is as if we are on a separate planet. “The whole country cannot run on subsidies,” Chaudhry said, emphasising that the prices will reduce in Pakistan once they reduce around the world. “Today the prices are high, tomorrow when they will decrease, they will subsequently decrease in Pakistan too,” he maintained. Fawad encouraged people to “face difficulties together as a “nation”, claiming that economic difficulties are temporary.

On Friday, the world oil prices exceeded $85 a barrel that was the highest rate since October 2018. The government announced the increase in fuel price in a statement issued by the Finance Division. Accordingly, petrol – which is used in cars and motorbikes – will now be sold at Rs137.79 per litre against the earlier price of Rs127.30 per litre.