The opposition leaders lambasted the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf government on Wednesday for a record hike in the price of petroleum products, calling the increase in the price like exploding a “petrol bomb” on people.
A day earlier, at the stroke of midnight, the government made a massive increase of up to Rs12.03 per litre in the prices of petroleum products, taking that of petrol to a record level of Rs159.86 per litre effective from February 16.
The price of petrol broke all previous records by reaching the Rs160 per litre mark. In a tweet, Pakistan Muslim League-N President Shehbaz Sharif termed the hike “insensitive, heartless and cruel”.
He urged the masses to teach Imran Khan a “befitting lesson at the time of elections”.Pakistan People’s Party Chairperson Bilawal Bhutto Zardari also rejected the hike. He said, “After inflation, unemployment, poverty, dollar, and corruption, petroleum prices have also touched record high in Imran Khan’s government.”
Bilawal criticised the hike and said the days of the “’selected government are numbered”, adding that the citizens will not accept it at any cost.
Bilawal also said the long march planned by his party on Feb 27 will hold the government accountable for its policies.
PML-N leader and former finance minister Ishaq Dar said the devaluation of the rupee has landed the Pakistani nation with “unaffordable prices”.
PPP Senator Sherry Rehman said petrol will become “unaffordable in Pakistan” after the recent hike. She said the government raised prices even though the global prices went down a day ago.
These are the highest-ever prices of all the products and also perhaps the highest-ever increase in their prices in one go.
Sirajul Haq, the Jamaat-i-Islami head, said his party “will not remain silent on this brutality”, adding that the hike was another example of the government’s “brutality” as he threatened a protest march towards Islamabad.
Meanwhile, PPP’s Nafisa Shah questioned how people would make their ends meet after the steep hike. Another PPP leader Naz Baloch, formerly a PTI member, said the price surge would directly result in a new high in inflation.
