ISLAMABAD: PMLN President and National Assembly Opposition Leader Shehbaz Sharif has strongly condemned the possible 35 percent increase in gas tariffs and has demanded an immediate reversal of the step.
In a statement Shehbaz said these tariff bombs were being dropped on the people because the government was fulfilling the conditions of the IMF budget which was the consequence of the most terrible deal with the IMF.
“The government shamelessly lied to the entire nation about presenting a budget without any fresh taxes. Every single word said by PMLN has turned out true about the budget and financial policies of the disastrous Imran government. PMLN warned that there would be a tsunami of new taxes and inflation in the country after this fraud budget. The entire country has seen now what a farce that budget was”, he said.
The PMLN President said the unjustified increase in gas tariffs was a blunder and called on the Imran government to stop crushing the Mars with one act of cruelty after the other. He said there was no capacity in the people to bear any more financial burden and with its vicious steps the PTI government was pushing the country towards a civil war.
He said that no amount of increase in tariffs would solve the financial problems of the country because the core reason for the troubles economy were the Imran government’s corruption and incompetence. This tariff hike in electricity and gas would only make life worse for the people. It would lead to an inflation chain reaction which would raise the price of chapati. They raised the electricity tariffs by Rs 5 earlier this week and this gas tariff increase inaddition to 141 percent earlier, would hammer in the last nail in the coffin, he said.
This government had caused the 9/11 of Pakistan’s Economy and its now making Torabora of the nation with the unending inflation rate increase. This shows that this government did not even understand the ABC of economic policies. Imran should spare the nation and instead of committing mass murder of Pakistanis, should step down and go home. Why should the people pay the price for Imran’s incompetence, inabilities, and ignorance?
He said the government said tariffs hike would lost the debt of gas companies but the truth is that these companies were in more debt than any other time. It had been two years but these had companies had neither completed their audit, not had they made their accounts public, he stated. Even the gas companies had been destroyed by Imran’s incompetence, he said. Pakistan today was providing the world’s most expensive LNG and had the highest electricity and gas tariffs in South East Asia, thanks to Imran Khan. Pakistan was now among the countries with the highest inflation rate with the lowest income, he pointed out.
