Opposition parties Friday lashed out at Prime Minister Imran Khan, blaming his government for the rise in prices of petroleum products while the PTI’s coalition partners warned of rising inflation. The government announced a hike in the price of petrol by Rs8.03 per litre today, a day after Prime Minister Imran Khan warned the nation that fuel prices would have to undergo an increase. Reacting to the price hike, PML-N President Shahbaz Sharif said that since the incumbent government came to power, it had brought the entire nation to “the ration card”.
“Imran Khan lets the axe of inflation fall on the public and then wonders why inflation is surging in the country,” he tweeted. “Over the past three years, the price of edible oil has increased by over 130%,” he added. The PML-N president said that the price of edible oil going up from Rs160 to Rs369 is unjustified, he said, adding that a “storm of inflation” had followed the prime minister’s announcement of a relief package for the masses. The hike in prices of petroleum products is proof that the government does not care about the poor,” he wrote. He said that while the price of petrol had not surged past the Rs145 per litre mark, the government had exceeded the limits of ineptitude, corruption and incompetence.
“Increasing the prices of petrol and diesel by Rs8 per litre will also have a direct effect on prices of other items. It has become difficult for the common man to live,” he wrote. He said it was in the best interests of the entire nation and the masses that the prime minister “goes home instead of wreaking further havoc”, adding that inflation, unemployment and “economic destruction” do not go away merely via allegations of corruption. The MQM’s Rabta Committee also condemned the hike in prices of petroleum products, stressing that it will have a direct effect on the prices of essential items.
“The public have already been crushed under the weight of inflation,” stated the party’s Rabta Committee. “Shifting the entire burden of globally increasing prices of food items on the public is not a wise decision.”The party advised the government to do away with “unnecessary expenditures” instead of shifting the burden of inflation on the masses. “The prime minister should have some mercy on the people and take back his decision to hike prices of petroleum products,” it added.
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