Pakistan leader of the opposition, Shehbaz Sharif (PML-N) held telephonic talks with Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and devised a joint strategy to counter Imran Khan government in the Parliament against the rising inflation in the country, reported a local media.
The Imran Khan government had announced a hike in the petrol price by Rs 8.03 per litre.
Bilawal said that every passing day the Imran Khan government is increasing the problems of the people, reported The News.
The opposition leader also took a jibe at Imran Khan saying that only 30 per cent relief has been given against the increase of 110 per cent in the price of ghee in the last three years. He also said that the prime minister is announcing a relief of 30 per cent in the electricity prices as against the increase of 60 per cent in the last three years, reported the newspaper.
He also said that Imran Khan’s relief package was meant only for a few families and not for the people.
The party also demanded to slash the prices of the petroleum products immediately and warned of protest if the prices are not brought down.
Masses should be ready. The PPP will soon announce its anti-government protest programme,” The News quoted Shazia Marri as saying.
She accused Imran Khan of harming the public instead of providing relief to them.
“Imran Khan has taken anti-public measures in his bid to fulfil the IMF agenda,” the newspaper quoted her as saying.
Meanwhile, PMLN President Shehbaz Sharif said that the PTI government had brought down the entire nation to ration card since ever it came to power.
“Imran Khan lets the axe of inflation fall on the public and then wonders why inflation is surging in the country,” the party president tweeted.
The rise in the edible oil from Pakistani Rs 160 to Rs 369 was called “unjustified” by the PMLN president.
Sharif also said that a “storm of inflation” had followed the masses after the announcement of the relief package by Imran Khan.
“The hike in prices of petroleum products is proof that the government does not care about the poor,” The News reported him as saying. He further said that the government has gone past the limits of corruption and incompetence.
“Increasing the prices of petrol and diesel by Rs8 per litre will also have a direct effect on prices of other items. It has become difficult for the common man to live,” The News quoted him as saying.
Sharif took a jibe at Imran Khan saying that it was in the best interest of the nation that Imran Khan “goes home instead of wreaking further havoc”, reported the newspaper.
Former Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi demanded a new general election in order to put an end to the “ever-increasing” hike in petrol prices and to bring the country out of a crisis.
“There is one solution to all the problems including price hike: give people right to express their opinion in fresh general elections,” the newspaper reported him as saying in a press conference which was accompanied by PMLN’s secretary general Ahsan Iqbal and spokesperson Marriyum Aurangzeb.
“The elections like 2018 elections result in an increase in problems like surge in sugar price to Rs150, flour to Rs 80 and cooking oil to Rs360,” he added further.
Meanwhile, Secretary-General of Pakistan Muslim League Ahsan Iqbal said that the increase in the petroleum prices was the result of the depreciation of the Pakistani rupee.
The rupee in Pakistan has been devalued by 50pc due to incompetence and wrong decisions taken by the incumbent government,” the newspaper quoted Iqbal as saying. (ANI)
