Inflation, job crunch: Govt sleeps, nation weeps, says Bilawal

ISLAMABAD/LAHORE: Chairman Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Bilawal Bhutto Zardari Tuesday said the government's empty promises were not worth the paper they were written on, as the person who promised the people five million houses and 10 million jobs was the very reason for the growing hopelessness in the country.

“The government sleeps while the nation weeps, as the selected government and prime minister are busy benefitting from their rich cronies and do not care about the poor,” he said in a statement criticising the government for its economic policies.

In this environment of economic constraints faced by the people, Bilawal said he felt for the poor countrymen suffering from acute poverty, unemployment and price hike of the daily use commodities.

He said the “selected” thought the country could be run by opening shelters and food trucks but were unable to comprehend the difficulties faced by the common salaried population.

“The common people are finding it enormously difficult to stay afloat economically and raise their children,” he said.

Bilawal said the callous government had made it impossible for a common citizen to buy medicine for the elderly. He said people were behind hand with payment of school fees of their children and were unable to feed their children twice a day while malnutrition was creating an ailing nation because the children could not get enough nutrition required for their growth.

“The people have been deserted by those who have taken oaths promising their welfare,” he said, adding that the longer this callous and selected regime stayed in power, the darker it seemed to be.

Meanwhile, Information Secretary PPP Faisal Karim Kundi said Prime Minister Imran Khan still lacked political insight and was nothing but a pawn of anti-democratic thinking. “No puppet can challenge former president Asif Ali Zardari,” he said, reacting to the prime minister’s speech on Tuesday.

Faisal said Imran Khan did not remember what he said yesterday. He said until recently, Imran Khan was inciting people to transfer money through hawala hundi. “Will Imran Khan tell the nation through which bank Aleema Khan sent money abroad to buy properties and what were her resources?” he questioned.

He said Imran's knowledge of world politics could be gauged by him connecting the borders of Germany and Japan. "Mr Niazi, where are your 200 economists," he asked, adding that Prime Minister Imran Khan should get ready to give an account of oppression.

Reacting to the speech of Imran Khan, PMLN Secretary Information Marriyum Aurangzeb said Imran should be ashamed of calling his extreme cruelty towards Pakistanis as Jihad. In a statement, Marriyum said Imran Khan's agenda on every single morning was to increase the prices of sugar, wheat, flour, electricity, gas, medicines and other essential commodities.

“Every single morning Imran takes decisions increasing inflation and poverty in the country, she added. He only plans on his next mega theft because he has to reload the ATMs and feed the mafias that run his expenses,” she said.

She said Imran should be ashamed of comparing his governance full of corruption, extortion and exploitation with the state of Madina during the times of the Prophet (SAW). Marriyum said Imran was the chief culprit of the precarious state of affairs in the country where inflation and unemployment were out of control.

He is responsible for the fact that the white collar middle class could no longer pay for their bills, for food, their healthcare and for the education of their children. This government of looters continues lying profusely as if it’s a lying Olympics competition, she said, adding those who believed in stealing elections didn't believe in serving the people. She pointed out that the prices of food items had risen by 9.3 percent in urban areas and 7.3 percent in rural areas.