PM’s Ramazan package nowhere to be seen: Bilawal

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has blamed Imran Khan and the PTI government for the skyrocketing inflation during the holy month of Ramazan and said the “selected prime minister’, who was walking around the world with a begging bowl, gave no relief to the people but only disgrace.

The PPP chairman made it clear that the solution to this country and its problems is not Imran Khan’s business as the Ramazan package announced by him is nowhere to be seen. “Subsidizing Utility Stores in Ramazan did not end the government's responsibility as inflation in the open market was skyrocketing, while most of the Bachat bazaars, set up by the government, are selling items more expensively than the open market,” he said.

“Imran Khan should have mercy on the masses to step down to save the nation from further damage and suffering,” he demanded in a statement on Wednesday.

Bilawal said increase in prices of 16 essential commodities, including ghee, flour, pulses and meat at the beginning of Ramazan, was the incompetence of the PTI government and Imran Khan was the main reason for miseries in the country. He also said that the recent report of think tanks shows that the economy is suffering from severe slowdown. Bilawal expressed concern over the fact that inflation has risen alarmingly after Imran Khan’s announcement of surveillance of everything during Ramazan, adding that that the selected prime minister was hostile to the people by sponsoring the inflation mafia. He said that the selected government has done everything to push the people against the wall as the record increase prices of food items in the month of Ramazan has broken the back of the people.

Bilawal also said that the common man does not have enough budget in Ramazan to buy vegetables and fruits for his family every day.

The PPP chairman, while explaining the real cause for the inflation crisis, said that Imran Khan has handed over the country to the mafia by throwing it into debt. He said that the people’s fate will not be changed by replacing finance ministers. “The real relief to the people will come only when the incompetent rulers responsible for inflation in the country go home,” he added. Bilawal stated that instead of giving examples of the world, the incompetent prime minister should tell as to what has his government done for the people so far. Referring to the situation in the country, he said that the rate of inflation is breaking its own record every month and the government’s own statistics on inflation are laying bare the perpetual failures of the regime.

Meanwhile, PPP Secretary Information Faisal Karim Kundi said Prime Minister Imran Khan has divided Pakistan in two and two laws are the real face of the supposed “change”. All the looters of sugar, flour, petrol and medicine are safe in the Niazi Empire as no action has been taken against Nadeem Babar yet,” he said in a reaction to speech of Prime Minister Imran Khan on Wednesday. Faisal Karim Kundi said in one Pakistan the huts of the poor are demolished and in another Pakistan the prime minister regularises his illegal palace. He said that Imran Khan had promised to provide the poor with 5 million free houses. “The prime minister’s housing scheme is a joke to the poor. How can a poor person who can’t afford to feed his children get a loan worth lakhs,” he asked. He said that the ‘Insaf Card’ is also a big fraud; the prices of medicines are out of reach of the poor, so what use is the Insaf card?

Faisal Karim Kundi challenged the prime minister to present the statistics of those who have been treated with the so-called health card in both the houses of the Parliament.