Govt asked to help daily wagers amid ongoing lockdown: PPP leader sees flour crisis

PESHAWAR: Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) central leader Khwaja Mohammad Khan Hoti has said that the government has failed to control the prices of daily commodities and the ongoing lockdown has enhanced the miseries of daily wagers.

Talking to reporters here on Monday, he posed a question as to why the central and provincial governments had made separate announcements for daily wagers and poor people in the name of relief. Those making an artificial shortage of daily commodities were exploiting the situation, he said. Nawabzada Hoti said that flour crisis has deepened and now those exploiting the poor were charging people as per their wishes in various localities.

He said the government would have to reduce the prices of essential items to give relief to the poor, instead of making mere announcements. The PPP leader said the indifference of the rulers to the provision of provide relief in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak was multiplying problems of the commoners.He said the lack of coordination among the governments and various departments had been observed and the government would have to concentrate and coordinate its resources and energies to providing relief to the people in this difficult time. Khwaja Khan said the people, including daily wagers and unemployed, had been confined to houses and they had no resources. The government announcement for the poor families, he said, was nothing but a joke with them amid the spiralling prices. Instead of making claims, Hoti said the government should take practical steps on an emergency basis. He appealed to the political parties and philanthropists to help the needy and deserving families in own respective areas. —