KARACHI: Traders on Thursday censured the PDM coalition government for a steep hike in petrol and electricity rates, warning about a countrywide agitation if the fresh increase is not withdrawn.
They reminded Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif of his promises of providing the nation with a low-priced petrol, saying he gave rise to fuel prices by Rs20 a litre and electricity by Rs7.50 a unit, instead.
In reaction to the fuel and power price surge, a huge number of traders staged protest demonstration at Juna Market roundabout in afternoon hours, as protestors shouted anti-government chants.
“The government has triggered a suicide explosion on the public,” President, All Pakistan Organization of Small Traders and Cottage Industry, Mehmood Hamid told the angry protesting traders.
He termed the fuel oil and electricity price hike an “anti-public move” by the coalition rule and vowed an “unshakeable” resistance. He warned the PDM rule about a countrywide agitation if the fresh surge persists.
“We question (the government) the whereabouts of low-priced Russian petrol,” which the PM had promised to provide to the public.
The government does not want to comprise on reducing its “extravagant” spending, he said.
He maintained that the government has shifted the entire burden of the country’s fiscal deficit to the public in terms of huge taxation, higher inflation and utility tariffs. “For all economic ills, people are held responsible,” he said. He castigated the government’s ‘inflationary’ policies, saying the poor have been awarded with huge electricity bills as 201 units now costs Rs8000 per meter.
“About nine million vehicles of the elite class is fed with a free fuel supply of Rs220 billion from the country’s economy with Rs550 billion of free electricity as well,” Mehmood Hamid said.
The public has also rejected the K-Electric as power supplying company, he said and criticized that it is still being “imposed” through a conspiracy. He said that the soaring cost of business has left the traders “unable” to trade anymore.
He also questioned about the revenues of 4000 tons of copper from Saindak and gold from the Reko Dig mines. “Despite huge resources then why are people deprived of the right of living,” he said.
Despite a huge economic crisis, he said that the Punjab caretaker government has purchased Rs900 million of new vehicles for its bureaucracy.
On the other hand, people are killing their children before committing a suicide because of the tormenting inflation, he said and feared that even daughters’ honor is at stake in the country’s universities.
Several other trade leaders spoke to the protest gathering against mounting cost of business, nerve wrecking inflation and growing economic uncertainties.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023