PTI allies in Sindh Assembly join PPP in condemning petrol price hike

Members of the Sindh Assembly, including those belonging to parties that are coalition partners of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) in the federal government, on Monday expressed severe concern over the recent hike in prices of petroleum products in the country, saying that the latest increase in petroleum prices had become unbearable for the common citizens already facing an agonising inflation in the cost of essential items during the present regime.

The concerned lawmakers during the PA sitting also censured the decision of the federal government to supply expensive re-liquefied natural gas (RLNG) to the industrial and commercial consumers in the province despite the fact that Sindh had plentiful reserves of indigenous natural gas.

The issues of increase in petroleum prices and supply of expensive RLNG came under discussion in the House as it took up an adjournment motion of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) MPA Sadia Javed, and a resolution by Nand Kumar Goklani, an opposition legislator belonging to the Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA).

Speaking on her adjournment motion, the PPP lawmaker said the poor people in the country simply lacked the capability to bear the ever-increasing fuel cost as they were already short of money to purchase essential food products.

She recalled that Prime Minister Imran Khan before coming into power used to say that a hike in the prices of petroleum products only took place when a corrupt ruler was in power.

Another PPP legislator, Farhat Seemi, said the general public could not pay rickshaw and taxi fares for their daily commute due to an unprecedented increase in the fuel cost. The lawmaker said the general public had been facing immense hardships due to the sudden increase in the prices of petroleum products.

Opposition legislator Rashid Khilji, who belongs to the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P), said that instead of the bureaucracy, the elected representatives of the people should take vital decisions of the country, including those related to increasing fuel cost.

He recalled that the prices of petroleum products had also been increased in the past regime of the PPP and at that time, the international price was blamed for the petrol cost hike.

The MQM’s lawmaker conceded that the present situation had become dreadful for the general public due to inflation. PPP legislator Imdad Pitafi advised the GDA and MQM-P to part ways with the PTI, saying that it would ensure the sudden collapse of the present anti-people and anti-democratic regime in the country.

GDA’s Nand Kumar said that several people had been rendered jobless in Sindh due to ill-advised policies of the government. He said that expensive RLNG imported from Qatar was being supplied to the consumers of Sindh while the province accounted for 70 per cent of the total production of indigenous natural gas in the country. He lamented the operators of the CNG stations in Sindh had been compelled to purchase expensive RLNG. He said a conspiracy had been hatched up to deprive the consumers in Sindh of the indigenous natural gas produced in the province.