LAHORE: Opposition leader in the National Assembly Shehbaz Sharif has said the around Rs4 increase in electricity tariff for Karachi is a proof the PTI government has become a slave to the IMF.

“This step [tariff hike] will further increase inflation in the country and make the people’s lives more miserable who are [already] finding it hard to make both ends meet,” the PML-N president said in a statement here on Tuesday.

He said the government was succumbing to the IMF’s demands and increasing prices of electricity and gas, and imposing new taxes.

Shehbaz asked the government to tell the people as to why it was not reducing the prices of petroleum despite the decrease in rates in the international market.

“Why is the government not giving relief to the masses and not ready to trickle down its impact,” he asked.

He said the nation should rightly call Imran Khan a ‘thief prime minister’ after the over 30 percent depreciation of rupee during his three-year tenure. The masses should not be punished for Khan’s incompetence and corruption, he added.

Meanwhile, PML-N Punjab Information Secretary Azma Bokhari said the PTI spokesperson got unnerved after the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) announced a long march.

“We ask Imran Khan to keep a container ready in Islamabad. Why Imran Khan and his army of spokespersons is afraid of the opposition’s long march,” she said.

The opposition alliance, Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM), has announced a long march on Islamabad against price hike in the country on the Pakistan Day on March 23.

Published in Dawn, December 8th, 2021