LAHORE: The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, Punjab, on Wednesday staged province-wide demonstrations in front of press clubs against excessive increase in electricity bills, price hike and ever-increasing joblessness.

In Lahore, a large number of protesters led by PTI Punjab Secretary-General Dr Yasmin Rashid and Lahore president Abdul Aleem Khan were carrying banners and placards bearing inscriptions against the government failure in controlling excessive billing, loadshedding and joblessness.

They said the government should stop economic murder of the masses.

Speaking to the protesters, Dr Yasmin said the rulers were shifting the burden of their comforts on the poor. She said party chief Imran Khan was fighting for the due rights of the masses.

She said there was no democracy in the country, but Sharif dynasty was ruling.

She demanded that the excessive amount recovered in power bills should be returned to the masses. She said the government should also reduce petrol prices in line with decrease in the international market. She regretted that the rulers were pushing the masses towards committing suicides.

Abdul Aleem Khan said the PTI had been staging a sit-in in Islamabad for the past 70 days and would continue it till the resignation of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

He said Imran Khan was doing a politics of principles and had awakened the masses to know and get their due rights. He said Imran also helped minorities raise a voice for their genuine rights.

He said the PTI government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had uprooted corruption and an FIR could be got registered without any recommendation. While in Punjab, he said, people had to stage a sit-in for two months to get an FIR registered.

Published in Dawn, October 23rd, 2014