TOBA TEK SINGH, Feb 16: The raise in prices of petroleum products has widely been condemned by various political leaders.

Former PPP MPA Mian Muhammad Rafiq said the raise in diesel prices would create certain problems for farmers.

Farmers were entirelydepending upon the dieselto run their tubewells forirrigating farmlands as the Irrigation department had failed miserably to supply water for sugar cane and wheat crops, he said.

Pakistan Kissan Committee president Chaudhry Fateh Muhammad said that farmers were already facing financial problems due to price hike of other inputs, and the fresh increase would put further burden on them.

PML-N central leader and ex-MNA Hamza said Prime Minister Zafarullah Jamali had claimed that relief would be provided to the public, but the raise in petroleum products’ prices proved otherwise.

He said the government had no powers to deliver goods to the country and the people as it was toeing the line of the World Bank and IMF.

Millat Party’s Punjab chief organizer Ghiasuddin Janbaz said that prices of daily use items would shoot up with the recent increase in the prices of petroleum products.

RALLIES: Anti-war committees comprising progressive and left wing political workers have been set up all over the country to hold rallies in different cities and towns on Tuesday.

This was stated on Sunday by Pakistan Labour Party Central Chairman Shoaib Bhatti while speaking at a seminar in Gojra.

He said America had its eyes on the oil of Iraq and other Gulf states and progressive elements all over the world were united for the first time against the aggressors.

Labour Party district coordinator Tariq Mahmood and office bearers of the NGO also spoke on the occasion.

GETS DEATH: The district and sessions judge on Saturday sentenced a man to death for killing his neighbour.

Judge Muhammad Akram Zaki also ordered the convict to pay Rs30,000 compensation to the heirs of the deceased.

According to the prosecution, Shabbir Ahmad had killed his neighbour Zaitoon Bibi over a minor dispute in Chak No 398 JB last year.

SHOP BURNT: Fire destroyed a grocery shop in Bansanwala Bazaar of Gojra on Friday night.

Valuables worth more than Rs100,000 had reduced to ashes when the flames were put down after an hour.

The shop was owned byGojra City Union CouncilNazim Chaudhry Muhammad Aslam.

The cause of the fire could not be known.

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