ISLAMABAD, March 1: The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) has condemned fresh increase in the prices of petrol, diesel and kerosene oil and termed it an anti-people decision of the government.

In their separate press statements here on Tuesday, PML-N MNAs Chaudhry Abid Sher Ali, Maimoona Hashmi, Pervez Malik, Begum Ishrat Ashraf and information secretary Siddiqul Farooque said the government's decision indicated the worst kind of indifference and insensitivity to the plight of people.

The PML-N MPs said the government had made it impossible for the common man to arrange two square meals for himself and his family. They said the present military government had increased the price manifold as compared to the previous elected governments.

They were of the view that the decision had been taken on the directive of foreign masters. They said the government had completely failed to provide relief to the masses and it had no right to stay in power.

Meanwhile, Siddiqul Farooque said the Musharraf government continued to make hollow claims of focusing on elimination of poverty on one hand, and on the other, was continuously adding to costs of commodities. The claims that the price hikes will not affect common people is tantamount to rubbing salts into the wounds of the people, he said.

Mr Farooque said the fiction of economic progress in the guise of inflated statistics, foreign exchange reserves and ballooning stock market index was not going to satiate the hungry, while the excuse that rise in POL product prices was necessary to meet budgetary deficit was untenable.

He said real causes of deficit lay in expensive foreign tours, uncalled for raise in salaries and perks of the governors, ministers and parliamentarians, security network and purchase of expensive vehicles for the rulers.

The PML-N information secretary said the people were aware of the non-developmental expenditures of the rulers, as they were being deprived of even two square meals due to the luxurious lifestyle of the high ups.

He warned the government that the resentment boiling in the hearts of the people would burst one day into a spate of anger that all the might of the government would be unable to stem.