KARACHI, Feb 12: PPP MNA Nabeel Ahmed Gabol on Sunday castigated unprecedented price-hike in commodity items.

Mr Gabol said that the increase in prices was making the life of common people miserable. He said that sky-rocketing inflation in Pakistan could no longer be hidden, despite Islamabad being a key ally of the international community for its support in “War against terrorism”.

He said that the economic performance since the overthrow of the PPP government had been dismal. Despite massive international support, economy failed to provide jobs to the people, he added.

Nabeel Gabol said that middle class was suffering under crippling price hike and people were unable to make ends meet. He welcomed the report of the International Monetary Fund for giving a warning about inflation in Pakistan. He said that the IMF had noted that inflation was at the highest it has been since 1997, shortly after the overthrow of the PPP government, which had curbed price hike through deficit management.

In addition to the IMF, the Asian Development Fund has also cautioned Islamabad about the inflation rate, he claimed. He said that it was painful to observe that one-third of Pakistani population lived in poverty whereas another one third lived on less than two dollars a day.

Although tall promises were made in each budget, none of the promises was kept, he said. “The result is that price hike is making Pakistani goods non-competitive in the international market, adversely affecting jobs and opportunities,” he added.

The PPP had disputed the claims of the present regime that the growth rate would touch seven per cent this year, he said, adding that none of the claims made by the regime had ever been met.

Nabeel Gabol said that the country needed more than public relations packaging of the hunger and misery. The packaging was made pretty to hide the ugly reality of growing poverty, growing hunger and hopelessness amongst the vast majority of the people of whom sixty per cent lived on or below the poverty line. “One third of this sixty per cent was the result of the financial policies during the last five years,” he said. —PPI