PM can’t handle hike in commodity prices: Bilawal

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has slammed the PTI government for the record rate of inflation.

“Imran Khan’s government has unleashed a storm of inflation and to add insult to the injury there seems to be no intent to decrease inflation and ease the burden on the working class. How can a country survive economically when it imports sugar and flour while producing wheat and sugarcane in abundance?” he questioned in a statement on Tuesday. Bilawal pledged when the PPP forms government in the federation, it would issue Benazir Mazdoor Cards to labourers across the country.

“The puppet prime minister cannot handle the increase in prices of staples such potato, onion and tomato, while the cost of oil, ghee, sugar, flour, pulses, fruits, vegetables and meat have also skyrocketed,” he said.

The PPP chairman said while the annual rate has reached 14.1 per cent, according to the WPI, the inflation rate has reached 16.6 per cent while according to the SPI, the inflation rate in the country has reached 21.3 per cent. He said the bare Dastarkhwans of the poor in the holy month of Ramazan are pointing to Imran Khan’s incompetence. “People have been squeezed dry trying to survive this unbearable inflation under the selected government, whilst Imran Khan’s government is adamant not to listen to anything but sycophantic praise for the puppet prime minister,” he said, adding that the Sindh government is trying to heal the wounds of inequality by issuing Benazir Mazdoor Card in these days of spiraling inflation.

“History will bear witness that when Imran Khan was wreaking havoc through increasing inflation, poverty and unemployment, the PPP was employing innovative ideas to provide relief to the common man through limited resources available to it,” he said.