LAHORE: PML-N president and National Assembly opposition leader Shehbaz Sharif has said that inflation rising to the highest level is a sign of doom for the poor and destruction of the country’s economy.

“Meaningless lip service by the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) government will not do any good at a time when inflation has reached a 13-year high while the people are being obliterated by the skyrocketing inflation and unemployment.

The 11.5 percent monthly increase in inflation is a confession of the PTI government’s destruction of the economy and cruelty towards the people of Pakistan,” Shehbaz said in a statement on Wednesday.

He said the people were committing suicides due to the inflation, unemployment and lack of livelihood, while the aloof rulers living in a utopian world were calmly asking them not to panic amid “disastrous circumstances” created by Imran Niazi regime.

“Current account deficit continues to rise, exceeding $5.1 billion. Is this the austerity Imran advocates?” he questioned.

He said the poor could not even afford a pack of ghee, and were dying from starvation and inability to pay for medicines. “Everything including tomatoes, cooking oil, rice, fruits, vegetables, eggs, meat, milk, sugar, medicines, construction materials, has become too expensive to afford. Are these the good days PTI promised the nation?” he lamented.

He said the decrease in oil prices was just a ‘lolly pop’ for the people as they no longer trusted the government that dropped the “fuel inflation bomb” on them.

He warned the nation that the government was going to increase the Petroleum Development Levy by Rs4 every month in accordance with the IMF conditions.

The government must also decrease the petrol price in accordance with the fall in rates in the international market instead of this “window-dressing”, he demanded.

Shehbaz further said a government that deceived the nation in the name of budget and accepted conditions that were hostile to the people and in the interest of IMF was unreliable.

“The only way to give relief to the people from these mini-budgets and inflation is to get rid of Imran Niazi government, because the nation can no longer tolerate this tyrant gang.”

He said the Health Insaf Card did not provide medicines and treatment facilities to the people. The PTI government’s happiness over tax collections due to the sharp rise in imports was a typical example of self-deception, he added.

Published in Dawn, December 2nd, 2021