ISLAMABAD: The opposition Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on Friday denounced the latest surge in petroleum prices as an “economic atom bomb” targeting the country’s impoverished and inflation-hit population, warning that the hikes have pushed the cost of living to unsustainable levels.
In a statement, PTI spokesman Sheikh Waqas Akram accused the government of orchestrating a “deliberate and ruthless assault” on the livelihoods of daily-wage earners, salaried workers, and labourers.
He said the party would launch widespread protests against the harsh POL price hike, denouncing it as a deliberate and oppressive attack on ordinary citizens.
“While the ruling elite indulge in luxury, ordinary citizens are being crushed under skyrocketing fuel prices,” he said, calling the increase “the most brutal in the country’s history” and declaring it has shattered households already struggling to meet basic needs.
PTI criticised the government for economic mismanagement, failed negotiations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and policies that, it claimed, shifted the entire burden onto the masses.
Akram highlighted the immediate impact on transport costs, citing increases of nearly 60 percent for rickshaws, buses, and other public services.
The party also accused Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s administration of projecting a false sense of economic stability to satisfy the IMF, while citizens “suffocate under inflation.”
Akram argued that the crisis would have been avoided if former Prime Minister Imran Khan had not been imprisoned.
Comparing current fuel prices with pre-ousting levels in 2022, PTI said petrol has risen from Rs150 to Rs458 per litre, and diesel from Rs144 to Rs520, under what it described as an “incompetent” administration.
The statement urged the masses to actively defend their constitutional and democratic rights, questioning how daily-wage earners, salaried employees, and the middle-class can survive amid such steep hikes. “If your taxes are not being spent on you, who this system is serving,” he questioned.
PTI also accused the government of enriching itself at the masses’ expense, citing purchases of luxury jets and extravagant lifestyles, while ordinary citizens face mounting taxes and levies.
He alleged that the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) is coercing ordinary Pakistanis to shoulder a Rs670 billion deficit, mercilessly squeezing the poor to mask the government’s fiscal failures.
The party called for immediate relief measures, arguing the government is “utterly incapable of managing the economy,” and demanded its resignation if it cannot serve citizens’ interests.
Akram reiterated PTI’s position that the mandate of Imran Khan must be restored, warning that Pakistan cannot continue to address crises at the expense of ordinary people.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2026
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