LAHORE: PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif lashed out at the Imran Khan government for planning further increase in the prices of petroleum, LPG and other commodities from the next month, saying the opposition will oppose the move in parliament.

“(Prime Minister) Imran Khan Niazi is piling up taxes and hiking inflation while trampling on the basic constitutional rights of the people of Pakistan. The PML-N will protect the economic and constitutional rights of the people and stand as an iron wall against those who seek to usurp these rights,” the opposition leader in the National Assembly said.

He said this government’s claim to control inflation by raising the prices every day was absolutely incomprehensible.

“The proposed increase of up to Rs9 in the prices of petroleum products will hammer the last nail in the coffin of the masses, who have already been murdered by the PTI’s economic terrorism,” he said.

Shehbaz said the injustice committed by the government on Oct 16 by introducing an increase in the petroleum products prices up to Rs12 per litre, was unbearable. He added that he had been warning repeatedly that the PTI government must be ousted to stop the economic destruction of the country, “or it will be too late”.

“By repeatedly announcing minibudgets, the government has proved it has no solid, serious and viable economic plan. Political turmoil, combined with economic catastrophe, is leading Pakistan to the destination of a failed state. The country must be saved from it and rescued from this disastrous PTI rule,” he said.

“Putting more burden [of taxes] on the dying people is just naked cruelty,” he said and urged the masses to take to streets against this oppression.

Meanwhile, PML-N Information Secretary Marriyum Aurangzeb said next month gas would be even more expensive and unavailable too.

“Over the last three years, the PTI government’s slavery to the IMF had destroyed the national economy, while the people continue to lose jobs and get poorer every day.”

Published in Dawn, October 27th, 2021