PTI protest against price hike, high POL prices and privatisation

Rawalpindi

The leaders of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf Saturday staged a protest demonstration against the price hike, rates of petroleum products and the government plan to privatise PIA and Iesco.

The demonstration was led by Zahid Kazmi, president of PTI, Punjab in front of the Rawalpindi Press Club.

The demonstrators carrying placards and banners in their hands chanted slogans against the policies of the government which they said have made the lives of people miserable.

Addressing a large crowd, PTI president, Punjab, Zahid Kazmi said that because of the wrong policies of the government, people are dying of hunger and committing suicides. “Because of exorbitant price hike, people are financially crunched and selling kidneys and children to meet their expenses. Since taking reign of power, the government has created hardships and difficulties for the people through its wrong policies.” 

Referring to the Tax Amnesty announced by the government, he said that through this step, benefit has been provided to looters, tax defaulters and thieves.

He said that the present government instead of resolving the issues of price hike, checking corruption, reforming education and health sectors and paying attention on improving law and order situation is utilizing all its energies and resources on enforcing mega projects like Metro buses and Orange Trains to complete them in record time with the motive of earning commission worth billions of rupees without any delay.  

He said that a huge amount of  Rs 44 billion were spent on Metro Bus project completion in Rawalpindi however, the related contractors carried out sub standard work on this big development scheme which is an open act of cruelty  against the masses and joke with them. Due to non proper implementation of this project in Rawalpindi, acting commissioner, Sajid Zafar Daal and Hanif Abbasi have directed the concerned contractors to remove the lacunas existing in the Metro project by March, this year.

Similarly, Zahid claimed that the tariff of petroleum products has dropped by 70 per cent in the international market however, the present government of PML-N has decided not to give any relief to the people of Pakistan. In this regard, he alleged that the government has imposed 90 per cent tax on diesel and over 45 per cent on petrol which has crippled the people financially.

Zahid Kazmi alleged that the finance minister, Ishaq Dar, interior minister Ch Nisar Ali Khan and Raja Zafar ul Haq by staging demonstrations outside the parliament were initially opposing the privatisation plan of the government then why are they showing quickness in privatising the profit generating bodies, he questioned.  The objective behind privatising PIA and Steel Mills is just to procure these departments themselves on paltry amount. However, PTI would not allow the rulers to succeed in their designs, he added.

The demonstration was also addressed by Chaudhry Mohammad Yousuf, Haji Mohammad Rafiq, Malik Mehboob Elahi, Babu Idrees, Malik Shahzad, Raja Mohammad Munir, Sheikh Tariq besides other activists.