PM’s cronies minting money by engineered inflation: Bilawal

ISLAMABAD: Chairman Pakistan People’s Party Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has said the PTI regime is busy enriching Prime Minister Imran Khan's cronies in cartels and mafias through engineered inflation.

Bilawal said the sharp rise in tomato prices by up to 67 percent and the prime minister's complete apathy to the plight of the people is a proof that Imran Khan is the ringleader of this inflation mafia and his friends are minting money by raising prices. “Living for low-income families has become unbearable and that it was injustice to allow landlords to increase rents at a time when so many of our fellow countrymen were dealing with inflation and unemployment,” he said in a statement on Wednesday.

He announced when the PPP will come to power in the federation, Benazir Mazdoor Card would be rolled out to the rest of the country, adding labourers across Pakistan would benefit from this revolutionary programme. “The PPP is the party of the country's working class. We will always fight for the interests of the people and the labour class. In the first phase, the Benazir Mazdoor Card has been issued to 600,000 registered industrial workers in Sindh. “It will make life easier for millions of families in the days to come as the next phases will see these benefits extended to unregistered industrial workers, agricultural workers, domestic labourers, and we hope to eventually cover all labourers in Sindh. Medical grants and educational grants for children of labourers, marriage grants, scholarships and other benefits will also be provided through the Benazir Mazdoor Card,” he said. Bilawal termed the Benazir Mazdoor Card important milestone and added that any worker to suffer disablity in a workplace accident would be given a gratuity and lifelong pension, and God forbid in the case of a worker’s death those benefits would be transferred to his spouse. “In case of serious illness, the workers registered with Sindh Employees Social Security Institution (SESSI) will be treated in private hospitals,” he added.

Bilawal reiterated his commitment to stopping the anti-people measures adopted by this government and said when elected to power he would ensure that the people of Pakistan weren’t left at the mercy of the capitalist mafias and cartels. He said the “food items alone have seen at least a 15.9 percent price increase. In Imran Khan's “Madina Ki Riasat”, fruit prices have seen an increase of 25.2pc during the month of Ramazan,” he added.