ISLAMABAD, March 13: The Pakistan People’s Party and the Pakistan Muslim League-N are working on a plan to bring down prices of essential commodities.

“While political issues are being sorted out, a strategy is also being finalised to deal with issues like increase in prices of food items and petroleum products and the increasing fiscal and trade deficits,” former finance minister and PPP leader Syed Naveed Qamar told Dawn on Thursday.

He said that leaders of the PPP and PML-N were eager to provide relief to people. “It is very unfortunate that the PML-Q kept doing politics over past six years and ignored important economic issues which are now causing a huge problem,” he added.

Prices of basic commodities like sugar, wheat, edible oil and petroleum products had increased manifold and the last government did nothing to bring them down, he said. “These issues need immediate attention by the new government.”

Mr Qamar said that international oil prices continued to increase, posing more problems for developing countries like Pakistan.

He expressed the hope that the economic team of the new government would find a solution to the country’s financial problems.

He, however, said that it would not be easy sailing for PPP, PML-N and Awami National Party as “we would be inheriting a ruined economy”.

“But we have to solve problems through certain financial discipline,” he said, accusing the previous government of making tall claims and doing nothing to provide relief to the people.

Mr Qamar said that trade deficit had reached over $12 billion during the first eight months of the current financial year. Fiscal deficit was also increasing and it was very difficult to achieve the four per cent target set for 2007-08.

The PPP leader dismissed fears that the new government would remove senior officials from the ministry of finance and make fresh appointments.