PESHAWAR: Pakistan Peoples Party activists on Friday held protest demonstrations in Peshawar, Karak and Lakki Marwat against price hike and ‘tax-laden budget’ and demanded immediate withdrawal of additional taxes and steps to control inflation.

In Peshawar, the PPP activists held protest demonstrations and burnt tyres outside the press club against the government for its failure to control price hike. They demanded immediate withdrawal of new taxes.

The PPP workers of Peshawar district, city district organisations and women wing attended the rallies and shouted anti-government slogans.

Provincial vice-president Syed Ayub Shah, Peshawar district president Malik Saeed Khan, city district president Zulfiqar Afghani and women wing president MPA Nighat Orakzai led the protest rallies, separately.

Activists in Peshawar, Karak and Lakki Marwat reject budget as anti-people

Holding banners and placards inscribed with their demands, the protesters asked the government to take immediate steps for controlling prices of different items.

They termed the budget anti-people and said that the government was going to snatch livelihood from the poor people.

The protesters condemned the increase in prices of natural gas, electricity and daily use commodities and described depreciation of rupee as a complete failure of the government.

They asked Prime Minister Imran Khan to admit his failure and step down.

The PPP activists demanded early release of former president Asif Ali Zardari and his sister Faryal Talpur, saying that they had been detained without any evidence against them.

In Karak, the PPP activists held a rally against price hike and rejected the provincial and federal budgets as anti-people.

Addressing his party workers outside the local press club, PPP district president Sardar Khan said price hike had broken the back of poor people as they could not afford to buy daily use commodities and medicines.

He said the government had failed on all fronts and demanded of the prime minister to step down.

In Lakki Marwat, the PPP workers took out a rally in Naurang town to record their protest against price hike and ‘anti-people’ budget of the government.

Party’s district general secretary Qismatullah Khan and member provincial council Izzat Khan led the rally which started from Pasban Plaza and ended at the same point after passing through local bazaars.

Speaking on the occasion, the PPP activists said that Prime Minister Imran Khan lacked vision to run affairs of the government and steer the country out of financial crisis.

They said that by following the policies of IMF the rulers had burdened the poor masses with taxes and high inflation. They said that business activities had come to a standstill thereby increasing unemployment in the country.

Published in Dawn, June 29th, 2019