Centre-IMF secret deal to blame for record inflation: PPP

When Prime Minister Imran Khan was in the city to inaugurate the Green Line project, the Karachi chapter of the Pakistan Peoples Party on Friday blamed the federal government for the inflation, unemployment and hike in the prices of gas, electricity, petrol and other essential commodities in the country.

The PPP organised a demonstration at the Empress Market on the direction of the party’s chairman, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, who had called for agitation all over the country to protest against what he called the incompetence of the federal government, due to which major public issues were not being resolved.

PPP leaders who addressed the protest said their party had launched an agitation drive under the leadership of their chairman to get rid of the present federal government that had caused immense miseries to people in the country.

They expressed their resolve to continue with their agitation drive to safeguard the public interests. The PPP leaders said the party had always carried out struggle whenever the countrymen had faced problems during dictatorial regimes.

PPP Karachi President and Sindh Information and Labour Minister Saeed Ghani said the countrywide protests showed that the people in the country had been facing immense problems due to the unjust policies of the federal government.

He said the present regime should be sent packing in order to overcome the issue of unprecedented hike in the prices of essential products. He added that they would continue with their protest drive till the time the present regime, whom he called selected, was deposed.

Ghani claimed that the federal government had entered into a secretive deal with the International Monetary Fund to cause massive hike in the prices of essential products. The people had been facing severe economic hardships due to unprecedented hike in the prices of petrol, electricity and natural gas.

Opposition politicians in the country were sent to prison after registration of false cases against them but there was no accountability for the incumbent members of the federal cabinet who were responsible for the sugar and wheat crisis in the country, Ghani lamented.

The information minister said that during the last three years, the prime minister had done nothing for the development of Karachi and the people of the city had been deceived by him. He said Sindh’s due share in the National Finance Commission award, water and natural gas resources of the country had been usurped.

Referring to the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan, Ghani said the allies of the federal government who belonged to Karachi had done nothing to register their protest against the issue of increased prices of electricity and essential products. PPP Sindh General Secretary Waqar Mehdi claimed that the people in the entire country from Gilgit to Karachi had resorted to protest on the appeal of Bilawal.

He said the people had expressed their desire of getting rid of the present government that had caused up to 30 per cent inflation. The issue of price hike could not be addressed if the federal government remained in power, he added.

Mehdi maintained that in the past 74 years, the country had not witnessed so much inflation and rise in the prices of essential products. He said the people had realised that an agitation drive had to be launched to send the federal government packing.