LAHORE: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President Shehbaz Sharif and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairperson Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Saturday demanded the resignation of Prime Minister Imran Khan after the government announced an increase in the prices of petroleum products.
“It would have been better if the prime minister had resigned instead of dropping a petrol bomb on the people right at the start of the New Year,” the PML-N president wrote on Twitter.
Shehbaz Sharif said, “The governments in the world make things cheaper on festive occasions. But Imran Niazi dropped an inflation bomb. The PTI government could not bear the joy of the people on New Year.”
موجودہ حکومت کا دوسر ا نام ظلم، استحصال اور بے حسی ہے
عوام کو زندہ درگور کرنے کے بجائے عمران نیازی مستعفی ہوجائیں، اپنی حماقتوں کی سزا قوم کو نہ دیں
— President PMLN (@president_pmln) January 1, 2022
He said that “another name for the present government was oppression, exploitation and indifference.” The opposition said the premier “should not punish the nation for his follies.”
“Instead of burying the people alive under inflation, Imran Niazi should resign,” the PML-N leader said, adding that that nation will have to get rid of this “tyrannical government” to save itself from inflation, economic catastrophe and unemployment in the new year.
عمران خان نے بڑے دعوے سے کہا تھا کہ 2021 خوش حالی کا سال ہوگا، اب 2022 آگیا، خوش حالی کا وہ دعوی کہاں گیا؟ چیئرمین بلاول بھٹو زرداری کا سوال
نئے پاکستان میں ہر سال گزشتہ برس کی بنسبت زیادہ مہنگا ثابت ہوا اور پھر کہتے ہیں کہ پچھلی حکومتیں نااہل تھیں، چیئرمین بلاول بھٹو زرداری
— PPP (@MediaCellPPP) January 1, 2022
In a separate statement, the PPP chairperson expressed similar sentiments and said, “Imran Khan has given a New Year gift to the people by increasing the prices of petroleum products.”
Bilawal said that in the ‘Naya Pakistan’, every year has proved to be “more expensive than the last”, adding that everything is later blamed on the previous governments’ policies.
He said the premier had claimed that 2021 would be a year of prosperity but “2022 has now arrived [so] where did that claim of prosperity go?”
“During the PPP’s last government, there was the worst global economic crisis but we did not allow the people to bear the burden of inflation,” he said, adding, “The federal government should immediately reduce the prices of petroleum products in line with world market prices.”
The government increased the prices of petrol and high speed diesel (HSD) by Rs4 per litre, according to a statement issued by the Finance Division late on Friday.
Following this development, the price of petrol was increased from Rs140.82 to Rs144.82, that of HSD from Rs137.62 to Rs141.62, of kerosene from Rs109.53 to Rs113.53 and that of light diesel oil from Rs107.06 to Rs111.06.
The Rs4 increase in the price of petrol is part of a commitment made by the government under an agreement with the International Monetary Fund for a net fiscal adjustment of almost Rs550 billion during the remaining part of the current fiscal year.
