Inflation-hit people: PM decides to announce ‘comprehensive’ relief package

ISLAMABAD: In what appears to be an election-targeted move, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Friday decided to announce a comprehensive relief package for inflation-hit people amid a threat of dissolution of two provincial assemblies – Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa – as announced by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan.

Informed sources within Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) told Business Recorder said that the prime minister chaired a consultative meeting of the senior party leaders and cabinet members in which he instructed the relevant ministries to prepare a comprehensive relief package aimed at giving relief to the inflation-stricken masses.

In the meeting, the sources added that the prime minister exchanged views on the government’s future political strategy to counter PTI Chairman Imran Khan’s narrative and possible dissolution of the provincial assemblies of Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, as Khan is expected to announce the date for the dissolution of the two assemblies today (Saturday) in an attempt to press the government for announcing early polls.

They said that the prime minister told the meeting that the incumbent government of the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) and its allied parties would announce relief for the people “that have already been crushed by the previous PTI government through high inflation.”

The sources said that the prime minister instructed the relevant ministries also to prepare a plan to give the masses relief in the utility bills of electricity and gas, besides chalking out a special package for the youth to generate employment for them.

They said that the prime minister also instructed cabinet members to adopt an aggressive approach to counter the PTI’s narrative by highlighting the previous government’s alleged political and economic failures during its four-year tenure.

The prime minister has also asked the party leaders and the cabinet members to promote the government’s narrative through media, as well as, social media.

Earlier on Thursday, the government announced Rs10 and Rs7.5 cut in petrol and diesel prices, respectively.

The sources further maintained that the prime minister said that the coalition government is making efforts to put the economy back on track which was left “ruined” by Imran Khan’s policies, “which were leading the country to a Sri Lanka-like situation.”

He also instructed the party leaders to present a comparison of economic measures between the PTI government and the current government to the masses in the PML-N workers’ convention already being held across the country, apparently, an exercise of electioneering campaign.

The prime minister directed the party leadership to highlight the government’s economic initiatives and the relief given to the masses since coming into power and also counter the PTI’s narrative of the country’s “bankruptcy”.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022