ISLAMABAD: Pledging to lodge a strong protest in case its call was not heeded, the opposition asked the PML-N government on Wednesday to withdraw its decision to raise electricity tariff for commercial and industrial consumers.

In a statement, Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Syed Khursheed Ahmad Shah said the protest would be lodged in the National Assembly during the session to be held after Eidul Fitr.

He termed the increase in power tariff ‘anti-people’ and said the PML-N had made false promises about loadshedding during its election campaign.

The PPP leader said that by drastically increasing the price of electricity the government wanted to make it an item for the privileged class only.

The tariff, he added, had been raised only to please the International Monetary Fund (IMF) which would add to the miseries of the common man.

He said the step would render hundreds of industrial workers jobless and also result in an unprecedented price spiral.

The PML-N government, he alleged, was punishing the people for enthusiastically taking part in elections held this year.

In another statement, Mr Shah said the PML-N had abandoned its principled stand by entering into an alliance with the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM). “The PML-N which had been accusing the MQM of murdering Hakim Said and many other innocent people on May 12, 2007 in Karachi, entered into an alliance with the MQM by abandoning its previous stance,” he said.

He also criticised the nationalist parties of Sindh who were quiet over the ‘PML-N’s alliance with the MQM’. “The so-called nationalists are ignoring the interests of Sindhi people at the cost of some provincial ministries,” he added.

He also castigated the role of Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) in the recently held presidential elections.