KARACHI, July 2: The Pakistan Peoples Party Karachi chapter has called for a day of protest against the soaring prices of POL and other essential items, unemployment and power outages on July 5 outside the Karachi Press Club. This was stated by President Karachi chapter, Rashid Rabbani in a news conference on Friday. He said that the hike in prices had broken the back of the common man.

Mr Rabbani condemned the increase in the prices of petrol, diesel oil and gas barely three weeks after the federal budget and said that it was a pity that the government had not paid any heed to the warnings about galloping inflation.

He said that the government had increased fuel prices not once but several times.

Mr Rabbani pointed out that there was no protection for consumers as decision for the increase in prices was being taken by a committee which was heavily dominated by the oil companies.

He accused the government of subjecting the common people with horrific miseries in the shape of unemployment, inflation, growing income gaps, and transfer of resources from the producers to the exploiters, economic stagnation and extinction of hope for the future.

The PPP distributed a comparative price tabulation of increase in POL products and other essential items in 1996 and 2005 and demanded that petroleum prices should be brought down.

He was of the view that getting rid of this allegedly corrupt un-elected government was the only way out for the people to come out of their economic miseries and appealed the people to come together on a united democratic platform to usher in democratic constitutional rule and do away with military takeovers for good.

According to PPP’s tabulation, the prices of petrol had increased by 87 per cent since 1996; it was sold at Rs24.40 per litre in 1996 and Rs48.94 per litre in 2005.

Diesel price during the same period increased from Rs10.66 per litre in 1996 to Rs31.74 per litre in 2005.