June 30, 2008	Monday	Jamadi-us-Sani 25, 1429

KARACHI, June 29: Office-bearers of the Karachi Transport Owners Federation, Sindh, Raja Mohammad Rafiq, Aamir Khan and Raja Mohammad Hameed have lashed out at the government for raising diesel and petrol prices, saying that the decision would not only hit public transport operators but also every common man.

In a statement issued on Sunday, they said that transporters had made repeated appeals to the prime minister to bring down the oil prices but in vain. “Raising oil prices again at a time when prices of essential commodities are already skyrocketing is a great injustice with the nation,” they said.

They said that the storm of price hike had swept through the country and it would become very difficult for the government now to prevent people from taking to the street.

They said that with the oil price reaching unimaginable hike, it had become impossible for transporters to continue with their business.They warned of a nationwide strike if the fresh hike was not withdrawn within the next two days.

Meanwhile, Jamaat-i-Islami leader Asadullah Bhutto has termed the government’s decision to raise oil prices again a great injustice with the nation.

In a statement on Sunday, he said the raise showed that the government wanted to snatch even meals from

the poor, adding that the masses had given the rulers a heavy mandate in the hope that they would bring down prices of food and other essential commodities, besides reinstating the deposed judges. However, he observed, the rulers had shattered their hope.

He warned that the fresh hike in oil prices was bound to push the inflation rate to its peak.

—PPI