LAHORE: PML-N President and Opposition Leader in National Assembly Shehbaz Sharif has termed the Rs2.52 per unit further increase in electricity tariff another “heartless and cruel” act of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) government.

In a statement on Tuesday, Shehbaz said the tariff hike had proved that the “liar” government’s promise of relief turned out to be another lie.

He reminded that he had warned that the so-called “tax-free” budget by the PTI government would be a “blatant fraud”, and his warning was being proved right over and over again by the repeated hikes of tariff of public utilities.

The PML-N president said he had also warned that Pakistan’s economy wouldn’t function and the people of the country won’t be able to survive if this government was allowed to continue any longer.

“Ending subsidies on gas for industries will trigger another economic crisis as it would shut down factories and create even more unemployment. This withdrawal of subsidy will also jack up electricity tariffs, which will have a devastating effect on the current inflation and stall national growth. This cannot be allowed to happen,” he said.

He expressed his serious concern over the reports that the newly-procured LNG would cost Rs5,000 per unit.

“The 400 to 500 cubic feet daily shortage of gas was a clear proof of this government’s criminal mismanagement. The price of sugar has tripled from Rs53 to Rs160 per kg just over the past three years,” he pointed out.

In Peshawar, he said, sugar was being sold at Rs175 per kg, asking where was the government and its so-called relief package?

Illegal profiteers robbed Rs270 billion of the public money, while the Imran Khan government was standing akimbo, he lamented.

Shehbaz said the root cause of all these crises was the PTI government’s corruption, incompetence and autocratic rule. The people of Pakistan would continue to face this inflation until they took to streets against this brutal injustice, he added.

Opposition Leader in Punjab Assembly Hamza Shehbaz also castigated the government for increasing power tariff again, only a few days after a recent hike.

He said the power tariff had been increased by Rs1.68 per unit a few days ago and now an increase of Rs2.52 per unit had been slapped. He said it seemed the government was determined to drain out even the last drop of the masses blood.

Hamza said despite an exorbitant increase in the power tariff, the circular debt of the sector had crossed Rs2,300 billion mark.

Published in Dawn, November 10th, 2021