KARACHI, March 12: The Muttahida Majlis-i-Ammal on Monday criticised the recent increase in LPG prices and demanded that it be withdrawn immediately. In a statement, MMA legislators Mohammad Hussain Mehnati, Laiq Khan, Nasrullah Shaji, Hameedullah Khan and Yunus Barai said that while the petroleum prices were falling in the international markets, the government was not passing the relief on to the public, and now the prices had been enhanced without any justification.

They said that fuel prices had had a snowballing effect and as a result prices of all the essential commodities had risen, causing miseries to the people already suffering because of the rising inflation rate. They demanded that the fuel prices, keeping in view the fall in the prices in the international markets, be brought down.

The JI leaders also criticized the Muttahida Qaumi Movement for its alleged silence over the problems being faced by the masses, though it had said that it would help solve problems if it was given the government. They said the MQM had been in power in the Centre as well as in Sindh for over four years now but the people’s problems remained unsolved.

They said the MQM by remaining silent on the chief justice’s suspension, being condemned by the entire nation, had exposed itself that it was a supporter of the establishment. They also suggested that it was time that the MQM renamed itself as ‘Musharraf Qaumi Movement’.