Political parties decry increase in petroleum prices

The federal government’s announcement of an increase in petroleum prices on Sunday triggered widespread criticism by political circles in Karachi.

In a statement, Nasreen Jalil, a deputy convener of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan that is part of the coalition in the federal government, raised concern over the hike in petroleum prices, saying that it would usher in a storm of inflation.

She said the increase in petroleum prices would affect the prices of all commodities, including essential ones. She remarked that the government was not imposing agricultural tax because it feared rich feudals and was fleecing the common people instead. She demanded that the prime minister immediately withdraw the increase in petroleum prices and impose agricultural tax.

A spokesperson for the Majlis Wahdat-e-Muslimeen (MQM) in a statement said that a bunch of incompetent rulers had been imported on the country and its people, due to which the country's economic situation was getting worse.

He stated that the hike in petroleum prices would make the lives of common people miserable. He lamented that in the current political and economic crisis, youths were jobless and those who were working in the private sector could hardly manage to run their homes. The rulers and elite class had no reason to worry about the life of a common person and they had been focussing on robbing the country, he added.

He said the MWM rejected the hike in petroleum prices and would hold protests against the rising inflation across the country in the coming days.

Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA) Information Secretary Sardar Abdul Rhaim termed the increase in the prices of petroleum products an anti-people move and said that instead of giving relief in a difficult situation, the government had put the people in the mire of inflation.

In a statement, he said that the corrupt coalition government had dropped an inflation bomb on the people, instead of reducing its expenses and luxuries.

He said the government of the Pakistan Democratic Movement had thrown the people of Pakistan on the mines of inflation placed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The incompetent government had started taking practical measures to kill all the poor, he added. Rahim demanded that the recent hike in petroleum prices be withdrawn or else people would decide the fate of the government on roads and streets.

Condemning the increase in the prices of petroleum products, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf leader and Sindh Assembly’s opposition leader Haleem Adil Sheikh said the imported government has caused a storm of inflation by dropping petrol bombs on the people.

He remarked that the gift of Maryam Nawaz's arrival was given to the people in the form of expensive petrol. Incompetent rulers had bankrupted the country, he said, adding that the poor had been deprived of two meals a day and were being forced to commit suicide due to inflation.

Sheikh predicted that in order to fulfil more conditions of the IMF, the imported government would throw the people into a quagmire of inflation.

Pakistan Sunni Tehreek leader Sarwat Ijaz Qadri said in a statement said that the increase of 35 rupees in the price of petrol would result in unprecedented inflation. The government had failed on the economic front, he said as he decried the rulers for not curtailing their ‘royal’ expenses.

He said there was no democracy in the country but a dictatorial style of governance was going on. People were deprived of quality education, basic health and employment which had resulted into hyperinflation, he lamented.

Qadri said that making tall claims and taking loans from the IMF would not stabilise the economy. The rulers should rely on their own resources and stop borrowing from the IMF, he maintained. He asked the government to announce that Pakistan would not pay interest on its foreign loans and the borrowed funds would be returned after economic stability.