Hike in POL prices slammed

PESHAWAR: Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Khyber Pakhtunkhwa deputy secretary general Bahramand Tangi has criticised the federal government over the recent hike in prices of petroleum products and termed it a “gift of the New Year”.

He criticised the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz-led federal government and said the hike in prices would directly affect the poverty-stricken people. Bahramand was addressing a news conference at press club here on Monday, wherein the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) youth activists from Peshawar district announced joining the PPP.

The PPP leader rejected the PTI-led provincial government’s claim of having planted more than one billion saplings under the billion tree tsunami project in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. He challenged PTI Chairman Imran Khan and Chief Minister Pervez Khattak to hold an open debate with him on the project. The PPP leader alleged massive corruption in the project.

He said Imran Khan used to call the metro bus of Punjab and Islamabad as “Jangla Bus”, but now his party-led KP government had launched the Bus Rapid Transit Project. The PPP leader said the millions of rupees had been spent on Green Peshawar Project, but the green belts were later uprooted for the BRT project.

He alleged that corruption was at its peak in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the PTI-led government had failed to take steps for generation of electricity in the province. Earlier, PTI Peshawar youth wing president, Azmat Ali Toofan, Hayat Khan and Adil Khan along with their friends announced joining the PPP. They said the PTI was confined to Banigala and there was no respect for ideological workers in PTI.