KARACHI, Jan 19: Speakers at a protest demonstration on Friday criticised the government for not reducing fuel prices in the local market at par with the international market.

The participants said that the rise in petroleum prices hit the prices of all commodities, they demanded that the fuel prices be lowered significantly so that prices of essential commodities could come within the reach of common man.

They said prices of all the essential commodities had gone up between 100 per cent and 250 per cent in the past seven years since General Musharraf dismissed the democratic government and imposed the military rule.

Besides, they said a large number of people had been sacked under the garb of privatization, rightsizing and downsizing. They said it was for this reason that suicide cases had multiplied in the past seven years which exposed the government’s claims that the country’s economic conditions had significantly improved.