LAHORE: The PML-N has submitted a resolution in the Punjab Assembly, demanding withdrawal of the recent increase in the prices of the petroleum products.

PML-N lawmaker Rabia Farooqi submitted the resolution, which said it was unfair on the part of the government to raise the petroleum prices by about Rs10 in less than a month. This anti-peoples step should be taken back, it demanded.

Leader of the Opposition in National Assembly Shehbaz Sharif said his party would protest in and outside the parliament against the recent hike in the prices of petroleum and other essential commodities.

“After increasing petroleum prices thrice since this mid-June, the Imran Khan government has shot up the prices of sugar, flour and ghee, taking them out of the reach of the poor. This shows how much the PTI government cares for the poor,” said the PML-N leader here on Friday.

Shehbaz warns of protest in and outside parliament

He added it was cruel to raise 20kg flour price from Rs820 to Rs950, one kg ghee from Rs170 to Rs260 and per kg sugar from Rs68 to Rs85 at the utility stores.

“We will become the voice of the public in and outside of the parliament against this cruel increase in commodities of daily use,” he said, adding that the increase in petroleum prices ahead of Eidul Azha added salt to injury.

“The PTI regime has set another record to increase petroleum prices. For the first time in history, the prices of petroleum products have touched all-time high. I stated in my budget speech that they will make the lives of people miserable through price hike. This is a major step forward on this path.”

The opposition leader said the government had been increasing the prices of every basic commodity since it presented the budget last month.

JI: Jamaat-i-Islami emir Sirajul Haq has rejected the recent raise in petroleum products, demanding the government take the notification back and reduce the prices of the other commodities.

“We will spread the anti-inflation and unemployment protest movement in every nook and corner of the country until the government controls the inflation and provide relief to the people,” he said in a statement from Mansoora.

He reminded the prime minister of his criticism as the opposition leader against the increase in petroleum levy by the former governments, saying now the PTI was following the same pattern under pressure of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The government, he added, had set around Rs600bn budget revenue target from petroleum levy and aimed at collecting a huge amount from the taxes on petrol. The government, he said, should control the non-developmental expenditure, end corruption in institutions, introduce good governance and act against different mafias who were making billions of rupees by sucking the blood of poor people.

JI Lahore emir Mian Zikrullah Mujahid said the recent increase in POL and PPG prices should be withdrawn. The skyrocketing prices of petroleum products would create a storm of inflation when the people were already reeling under high prices and unemployment.

He expressed these views while talking to the media during a protest rally organised by the Jamaat-e-Islami against the increase in prices of petroleum products at Mansoora.

Zikrullah said if the government could not stabilize the prices of petrol, electricity, gas and other food items, the budget drama was not necessary.

WORKERS: The government should control price hike of essential commodities of daily use by reducing the price of petrol and other necessities of life on the eve of Eidul Azha.

The working class and poor segment of society demanded reduction in the prices of essential commodities by bringing the hoarders and blackmarketers to the book at the cost of the common citizens.

The demands were raised in a resolution passed in a meeting of trade union representatives and workers at Bakhtiar Labour Hall.

Confederation General Secretary Khurshid Ahmed urged the workers to forge unity in their ranks and work for establishing a society based upon equality, fraternity and social justice and dignity of work by introduction of agrarian reforms in society.

Published in Dawn, July 17th, 2021