LAHORE: The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) says it is embarrassing to see the prime minister of an agrarian country collect rice as charity from friendly countries.

“It is very embarrassing to see Prime Minister Imran Khan accept as charity rice from abroad while ours is an agriculture-based country, which exports rice worth billions of dollars,” PPP parliamentary leader in Punjab Assembly Hassan Murtaza said here on Tuesday.

In a reference to distribution of rice among over 100,000 needy people of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, he lamented that the charity was officially accepted by a federal minister at a Zakat al-Fitr Project ceremony a day ago.

The PPP leader sarcastically said that the prime minister may one day begin collecting used clothes and scrap from abroad in the name of helping the needy.

He asked the prime minister to change his disguise and mingle into the masses to have first-hand information and views on the performance of his government.

He lamented that after the flour and sugar crises, the people are currently facing the poultry issue as prices of chicken registered an unprecedented hike. “Chicken prices are going exorbitantly high like assets of Aleema Khan (a sister of the prime minister).”

Meanwhile, Punjab PPP leaders Aslam Gill and Usman Malik have criticised the prime minister for saying in the telethon that the country was devastated because of foreign loans, while on the other hand his government has so far taken $33 billion foreign loans.

They say if the premier believed that mafias were controlling each department then he should tell the people who’s ruling the country as sugar, flour, medicines mafia men were roaming freely under his very nose.

Published in Dawn, May 12th, 2021