LAHORE – PML-N President and Opposition Leader in National Assembly Shehbaz Sharif has termed the recent increase in electricity tariffs, petrol prices and other taxes a mini-budget, asking the government to reverse the cruel decision.
In a statement, Shehbaz said he had warned in his budget speech earlier that the government was trying to befool the nation, and it would burden the people with its minibudget. “The PTI government has proved me right,” he said.
“The PTI presented a fraudulent budget and lied to the entire nation and the world. If this government is allowed to stay in power, it will bring the national economy to a grinding halt. Millions will be unemployed, and millions will face abject poverty and starvation. Imposition of 17pc sales tax on exempt items and increase in petrol and electricity prices is terrorism against the people and national economy,” Shehbaz said.
The PML-N president said that the government had dropped a new bomb on the people at a time when inflation and unemployment was at an all time high and the economy was facing a total collapse because of its corruption and incompetence. “Imran Niazi is sacrificing the economy and the nation on the altar of the IMF. The PTI blindly acted on the terms of the IMF and did not bother to care about public interest. Imran Niazi is working for the IMF, not for the people and Pakistan,” he alleged.
Shehbaz said, “Imran Niazi takes steps that increase inflation, and then he stages the drama of complaining that people do not understand the reasons for rising inflation. “The nation knows very well who is responsible for all this and who is perpetrating this oppression every day.”
He added: “The problem is not the understanding of the nation, but the corruption, lies and historic incompetence of the rulers, which the people are paying for.”
He went on to say: “The government does not realise that the people are struggling to feed their families, and the government has done nothing but dodge the people with lies while crushing them under skyrocketing inflation, historic debt and unemployment. With the people suffering in this precarious situation, this sharp rise in the prices of petroleum products and electricity is a cruelty.”
He warned that such severe inflation was creating a serious problem of economic viability of the country which was not a good omen for Pakistan. “But Imran Niazi is a tyrant, corrupt and incompetent ruler who was indifferent to all this,” he added.