JI leader seeks relief for masses

PESHAWAR: Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (Central) chief, Abdul Wasi, has blasted the government for not giving relief to the masses by bringing down the prices of petroleum products despite the downward trend of the commodities in the international market.

In a statement issued here on Tuesday, he said that crude oil prices in the international market have reached their lowest levels in the past two months, but the government has decided to maintain the current fuel prices, which is a serious injustice to the masses.

He criticised the priorities of the government and said that the relief of the general public stood nowhere on its agenda. He pointed out that the oil and gas regulatory authority (OGRA) reviews fuel prices every fortnight based on global market fluctuations.

However, despite a continuous decline in crude oil prices over the last two months, the government has only made negligible reductions, which he termed as a “theft from the pockets of the people.”

He pointed out that OGRA recently recommended a cut of Rs14 per liter in petrol prices, but the government kept prices unchanged.The JI leader accused the government of rampant corruption, saying that instead of curbing financial mismanagement, it was relying heavily on foreign loans. He criticized the government for accepting loans from international financial institutions like the IMF and World Bank under humiliating conditions, which ultimately burden the people with excessive taxes. “The government is shifting the economic strain onto citizens by increasing electricity and gas tariffs every month as well as frequently hiking fuel prices,” he added.