ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) senior leader and vice president of Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) Raja Pervaiz Ashraf said that unemployment rate had increased by more than 50 percent, and the price hike in the country was now six times as compared to the previous government.

Addressing at a news conference on Wednesday with party’s media chief Nazir Dhoki, Raja Pervaiz Ashraf said that sugar was Rs 62 per kg, today it is Rs 100 per kg, flour was 42 per kg in the previous government, and today it is Rs 80 per kg.

He said that unemployment rate had increased by more than 50 percent in the country.

He said that the unemployment rate in Pakistan in 2013 was 6.3 percent, and today it was 9.5 percent. The PPP leader said that poverty ratio in 2018 was 29.5 percent, and now it was 33.5 percent.

He said that growth rate was 3.84 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the PPP’s federal government, and now it was -0.4 percent.

He said that during the PPP government (2008-2013), Pakistan was an exporter of wheat, whereas during this PTI government we have a wheat crisis, and wheat is being imported. He said that the PPP government gave food security to the country, and it became a wheat exporting nation.

Pakistani growers were prospering but now they are in a bad situation.

He said that the government employees were protesting in Islamabad for many days but no one was there to allay their reservations and provide them relief.

Price hike in food commodities has become unbearable for the common people of Pakistan.

The PDM vice president said that the PTI government had promised five million homes and 10 million jobs, so what happened to those promises?

He said that PDM had come to the fore with the problems of the people of Pakistan and would work for the solution of their problems. He said that it was beyond comprehension to call inflation in the country due to the corruption of previous governments.

Raja Pervaiz Ashraf said that the PTI’s “selected” government had washed away the dreams and hopes of the people, and instability had engulfed the country.

He said that the PDM would fight for real democracy in the country inside the parliament and on the streets.

He said that during the PPP’s tenure in government, the opposition was free to hold public gathering and take out rallies.

He said that there was not a single political prisoner in the country during the PPP government.

Now there are 60 to 65 ministers, advisors and special assistants but all are inept and incapable, he said.

“If these ministers and spokesmen say that public will not attend the gathering in Gujranwala, then why the government is so disturbed,” he said.

“It is ironic that the sessions of Senate and National Assembly had been summoned during the dates of PDM’s public gatherings. The parliament is being run by cheating the members and the people of Pakistan.”

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020