PESHAWAR: Qaumi Watan Party (QWP) Chairman Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao has said that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government would place more burden of taxes on the people in the proposed mini-budget.

Addressing a gathering in Peshawar city on Sunday, he said the government, in the mini-budget, would impose more taxes on the people, who were already exposed to galloping inflation.

On the occasion known political and social figures Haji Amin and Haji Rahim announced joining the QWP. Sikandar Hayat Khan Sherpao, provincial chairman of QWP and Syed Fayyaz Ali Shah, provincial vice-chairman, were also present on the occasion.

He was critical of the government’s recent deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), saying it would cause a fresh wave of inflation in the country. He added that the PTI government was acting on the diktats of the IMF and it was least bothered to provide relief to the people, who were grappling with backbreaking inflation.

Aftab Sherpao said that the people were no longer in a position to cope with the rising inflation coupled with unemployment. He said though the government secured huge loans from the IMF and other international money-lenders, it failed to revive the economy. The QWP leader said using the electronic voting machines would disenfranchise the women and the elderly people in the rural areas as most of the voters living in the countryside were less educated and lacked the technical know-how to cast their votes through the EVMs.

He came down hard on the government for carrying out natural gas loadshedding in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa during the winter. He said the province produced surplus gas, but it was unfortunate that the residents of KP were facing unprecedented gas outages this winter. “This government is totally incompetent. It lacks the ability to deliver on its pledges,” he continued.

He said the country had seen rampant corruption in the last three-year rule of the PTI’s federal government. He said at a time when the petroleum products had fallen in the international oil markets the rulers did not pass on the benefit to the consumers in the country.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021