Bar council warns of protest over price-hike

PESHAWAR: The Pakistan Bar Council (PBC) has warned of a countrywide protest if the government did not take measures to control the unprecedented inflation, especially the hike in prices of the food items, medicines and other goods being used by the poor people.

In a statement on Sunday, the PBC vice-chairman Khushdil Khan and Muhammad Faheem Wali took a strong exception to the massive inflation in the country. They especially criticised the sharp increase in the prices of consumer items that has made the life of the common man miserable.

The PBC office-bearers blamed government’s inefficiency and anti-citizen policies for the huge surge in prices. Khushdil Khan and Faheem Wali said in a country where almost half of the population lives below the poverty line, frequent raises in the prices of daily use items had hit the people hard.

They said the govt needs to take immediate measures to improve the situation or else the PBC would be forced to stage a countrywide protest against the government.

Our correspondent adds from Mansehra: The People’s Lawyer Forum has demanded the government to withdraw the recent increase in the prices of the petroleum products.

“The PPP has recently held protest demonstrations across Mansehra and rest of Hazara division against the inflation and unemployment and now we would follow the suit as peoples’ purchasing power reduced drastically following the recent surge in the petroleum products prices, “Sheikh Noorulamin advocate, the president of the People’s Lawyer Forum briefed the media about the forums meetings held here on Sunday. The members of the forum largely showed up in the meeting and passed a resolution demanding an immediate withdrawal of recent increase in petroleum products prices and electricity traffic.