The Pakistan Peoples Party’s (PPP) Karachi Division held a demonstration outside the Karachi Press Club on Saturday to protest against the unprecedented hike in the prices of essential and petroleum products, and the curtailment of the supply of natural gas to the residents of Sindh.
Addressing the participants of the demonstration, the PPP’s provincial and city leaders said that it is high time that the incumbent prime minister suffer in the same callous manner that the people of the country have been suffering due to inflation and price hike.
They said PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari will lead the long march from Karachi to Islamabad, adding that he will not return from the federal capital until the PM is sent packing. The participants of the protest shouted slogans against the present rulers belonging to the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).
PPP Sindh President Nisar Ahmed Khuhro praised the party’s chief for leading the struggle from the forefront to save the country. He said people in every district of the province will warmly welcome the PPP chairman during the long march. Khuhro said the PPP chief is carrying forward Benazir Bhutto’s mission to uphold democratic rule in the country. He said the party chairman decided to hold the long march without getting any signal from any influential quarters.
He stressed that the people of the country will emerge victorious as a result of the long march. He advised the PM to immediately step down and acknowledge his utter failure in running the country.
Khuhro said the PPP’s struggle will continue until the present government’s dismissal. He added that every community in the country has been suffering immensely due to massive price hike and inflation, and that this hardship will come to an end only after getting rid of the present rulers in Islamabad.
Sindh Information and Labour Minister Saeed Ghani said that hundreds of thousands of people of Karachi will become part of the long march that will start on February 27.
He said that the per litre price of petrol had been as low as Rs87 when Imran Khan had come into power, but now the price had increased to Rs160.
He also said the people of the country will soon have to suffer an increase in the electricity tariff after the hike in the price of petrol. He added that the present rulers have not been uttering a single word on the issue of petrol price hike.
Ghani, who is also the PPP’s Karachi president, said the chief of the Sui Southern Gas Company has admitted that the natural gas being produced in Sindh is being diverted to other provinces in the country. He said Sindh’s natural resources are being usurped by the rulers in the Centre.
He also said that the increase in the price of petrol will continue because of a secret accord signed by the present government with the International Monetary Fund.
He added that the PPP chief had become the first opposition leader in the country to voice concerns on all such public issues, and that the struggle of the party’s chairman will continue until the dismissal of the PTI government.
PPP Sindh General Secretary Waqar Mehdi said the party’s protest started the day the present government was formed. He said underprivileged sections of society have been suffering due to the present government’s anti-people economic policies. He claimed the PPP chief will be elected as PM in the next general elections.