Petroleum prices' raise another bombshell on poor people: Dar

Former Finance Minister Ishaq Dar said that the recent rise of the petroleum prices is another bombshell on the poor people, who are already suffering due to growing inflation and unemployment. The people are being crushed by this government, and they had left with no but to launch a mass-scale agitation to get rid of it, he said in a video-recorded message from London. The PML, he said is stand by the people at their hard time.
He said the raise in petroleum's prices has brought inflation in the country, and it is affecting almost every house-hold commodity. There is about 23 to 28 percent rise in the prices, as compared to the time when the PML left the government. He contended that this is all because of defective policies and planning of the government. He asserted the government should forthwith take corrective measures to avoid further devastation in the economic sector.
Ishaq Dar deplored the eight infants dying at the District Headquarters Hospital Sahiwal, holding the PTI's government responsible of it. This is part of series of acts of inhuman behaviour towards the common man, he added. He urged the judiciary to take notice of it, to punish those who are responsible for their criminal negligence. There should be an independent inquiry of this highly sad occurrence.
Earlier, in a statement, Ishaq Dar said that the present government has pushed the country to a devastating stage, since there is around dollar 3,500 billion further increase in the debt burden on the national economy, due to devaluation of Pak rupees in the recent days. It was a high time to take some administrative and fiscal steps to safe the country from the economic debacle, he added.
Stating that the present government's economic policy a complete failure, Dar said it was a time when Pakistan was going to join G-20 Group because of its economic rise during the tenure of previous government, but it was going to reverse back. Currently, the country's stock-exchange situation was facing highly miserable position, and it was because of wrong decisions of the present government.
Ishaq Dar was of the view the devaluation of the Pakistani rupee over in the recent months was "cruel and unnecessary" decision and that he was deliberately taken to adversely impact the progress achieved in the past, when he was at the helm of the affairs. He pointed at there was a time when all major financial institutions] had declared the Pakistani rupee as Asia's 'most favourite' currency, but now the things were going reversed back.