LAHORE:Pakistan People's Party Workers (PPPW) President Dr Safdar Ali Abbasi, former Political Assistant to Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto, Naheed Khan, SVP Fayyaz Ali Khan, SVP Adv Amjad Baluch, Secretary General Kunwar Zahid, Deputy Secretary General Rai Qaiser, Sajida Meer, Waheed Golra, Malik Mazhar, Rana Usman, Naveed Sadiq others have strongly condemned the recent increase in petrol and diesel prices imposed under the pretext of the ongoing war-like situation in the region.
In a joint statement, they said the people of Pakistan are already crushed under relentless inflation, unemployment, and shrinking incomes, this decision is nothing short of economic oppression. The working class and salaried segments of society already pushed to the brink are now being forced to bear an unbearable burden that threatens their very survival.
They said that while global disruptions in oil and gas supply due to the war are a reality, it is deeply unfortunate that the government has chosen the easiest yet most unjust path, shifting the entire burden of this crisis onto the shoulders of ordinary citizens.
PPPW demanded the immediate withdrawal of the fuel price hike and called upon the govt to urgently introduce people centric economic measures that provide real relief. Meanwhile, Jamaat-i-Islami, under the leadership of party's Lahore Emir Ziauddin Ansari Advocate, organised a protest sit-in on Mall Road to denounce the historic and 'anti-people' hike of Rs137.23 per litre in petroleum prices.
Addressing a charged crowd of citizens and JI Youth, leaders, including Ziauddin Ansari, Secretary General Azhar Bilal, Qaiser Sharif and Jibran Butt declared that the government has used the pretext of war to drop a 'petrol bomb' on its own citizens, proving its enmity towards the masses.
