POL products, LPG prices: There must be no further increases in prices, PML-N tells govt

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Tuesday warned the government against further increase in prices of petroleum products, Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) and other commodities planned for the start of next month and vowed to strongly oppose any such move in the Parliament.

In a statement, PML-N president and opposition leader in the National Assembly Shehbaz Sharif cautioned the government about executing on its "plan" for the next six months to give further increase in prices of POL, LPG and other commodities.

"[PM] Imran is piling on taxes and shooting inflation through the roof, while trampling upon the basic constitutional rights of the people of Pakistan," he maintained, adding that the PML-N would protect the economic and constitutional rights of the people and would stand as an iron-wall against those who seek to usurp them.

"It's absolutely incomprehensible and nonsensical that this government is claiming to control inflation by raising the prices even more every day. This further increase of Rs7-9 in the prices of petroleum products would hammer the last nail in the coffin of the masses already murdered by the PTI's "economic terrorism"," he added.

He said that the injustice of October 16, with an increase of the prices of petroleum products up to Rs12 per liter was unbearable, adding that he had been warning repeatedly that the "PTI government must be dethroned to stop the economic destruction of the country, or it would be too late."

Shehbaz said that by repeatedly bringing in mini-budgets, the government has proved that it does not have a solid, serious and viable economic plan. "Political turmoil and economic catastrophe together are leading Pakistan to the destination of a failed state, the country must be saved from it and rescued from this disastrous PTI rule," he maintained.

He added that people's purchasing power had vanished, adding that double taxation is a crime under the constitution and law "but the government is brazenly robbing the nation with double taxation".

"Putting more burden on the dying people is just pure cruelty and taxes have to do with the purchasing power of the people and the rate of national development," he added.

He urged the people to come out on the streets against this "oppression" and take back their freedom and constitutional rights. In a separate statement, the party spokesperson, Marriyum Aurangzeb, said that the PTI government's increase in POL prices from November 1 will be accompanied by further blowing up of the prices of gas, electricity, flour, sugar, eggs, pulses, oil, vegetables, fruits, and medicine.

She said that in the month of November, gas will be even more expensive and will not even be available. "Over the last three years, the PTI government's slavery of the IMF had destroyed the national economy, while the people of Pakistan continue to lose jobs and get poorer every day," she maintained.

"Imran Khan has no direction and no strategy to resolve the economic crisis his "incompetence and corruption" had created. The record breaking "corruption and incompetence" has broken all records of inflation rate in Pakistan," she further maintained.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021