Says ration cards, queues, inflation, U-turn, and lies identity symbols of new Pakistan
LAHORE: Pakistan Muslim League (N) President and Leader of opposition Shahbaz Sharif said that ration cards, queues, inflation, U-turns, lies are the identity symbols of the new Pakistan. The gas crisis in country is due to Imran Niazi’s mismanagement and corruption. Shahbaz Sharif in his statement said that the people in petrol pump queues are remembering old Pakistan, the insensitivity of tyrannical rulers is salt on the wounds of the poor and the entire country has been engulfed by the smog of inefficiency.
He further said that inefficiency, corruption and inflation engulfed the country in last three years and his heart cries as he sees the nation in long queues for petrol, flour, sugar and essential commodities. Shahbaz Sharif said that a new bomb of 400% increase in the price of gas on new year is going to fall on the nation from January 1. Domestic and commercial consumers will get gas by paying an additional Rs 1,400 to Rs 1,700 per MMBTU unit from next month.
He warned that the government is all set to increase the gas tariff by a whopping 400% on New Year’s eve. Consumers will have to pay an additional Rs1,000 from January 2020 as the government has planned to drop a gas bomb on the masses, said the PML-N leader. Lashing out at the PTI-led government over its “incompetency, inflation and corruption”, Shehbaz said that after gas, a sugar crisis is again looming in the country. Talking about the price of sugar, the PML-N leader said that the commodity was available for Rs52 per kilogramme in PML-N’s tenure and is now being sold for Rs130 to Rs150 per kg.
Referring to the long queues at petrol pumps across the country amid a strike by petroleum dealers, Shehbaz Sharif said, “People are standing in long queues and recalling the old Pakistan and Nawaz Sharif.” “Inflation, long queues, U-turns and lies have become the identification marks of [the] new Pakistan,” he added. The poor are dying of starvation due to the policies of the prevailing government, the PML-N leader said.
Earlier, on November 5, reacting to the hike in prices, PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif had 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 last three years, the price of edible oil has increased by over 130%,” he had added. The PML-N president had said that the price of edible oil going up from Rs160 to Rs369 was unjustified, adding that a “storm of inflation” had followed the prime minister’s announcement of a relief package for the masses.