PESHAWAR: Qaumi Watan Party chairman Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao on Saturday rejected the use of Tiger Force by the government to check prices of essential items and said the ruling PTI had miserably failed to revive economy and provide relief to the inflation-hit people.

“It’s the responsibility of the district administrations to have a check on the prices of daily use commodities. The Tiger Force volunteers have no legal authority to visit markets for checking prices. The exercise will cause resentment among business community,” he told a function held here to mark the party’s eighth foundation day.

The QWP leader said the PTI government didn’t have the ability to address the growing inflation and unemployment in the country.

He said printing currency notes in bulk had caused inflation.

“The prices of sugar, flour and pulses have registered a sharp increase in the recent weeks but the government is not bothered about the people’s misery,” he said.

QWP chief says govt failed to revive economy

Mr Sherpao said it was ironic that two and a half years after forming the government, the prime minister had announced that he would take steps to bring the prices of essential items down.

He resented the raising prices of medicines, especially lifesaving ones, and said the government wanted to snatch the right to life from the poor people.

Alleging that the last general elections were massively rigged, the QWP chief said the opposition’s Pakistan Democratic Movement had launched rallies to oust the ‘selected’ rulers at the earliest.

“The people are fed up with this government. High inflation and unemployment has pushed the people to the wall,” he said.

The QWP chief said the reluctance of the National Accountability Bureau to probe irregularities in the Bus Rapid Transit project had strengthened the impression that the anti-graft watchdog was being used against opposition politicians only.

He said the government had mortgaged the economy to the International Monetary Fund and was acting on its diktats.

Mr Sherpao said the government hadn’t fulfilled its pledges regarding the development of the erstwhile to the resentment of the residents.About the attack on Nato containers in Khyber tribal district, he said the law and order was worsening in the merged tribal districts.

The QWP leader feared that the situation could worsen if the government didn’t take corrective measures.

Published in Dawn, October 18th, 2020