Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has said that for the first time in the history of the country an increase of about Rs20 per litre in the prices of petroleum products has been witnessed within a month.
Addressing party activists of Naundero city at Pir Jo Goth village on Saturday, the PPP chief said that PTI ministers had claimed during the budget session in the National Assembly that the current fiscal year would be a year of growth; development would be made and jobs be given to the people. He said the PPP had warned that the PTI-IMF deal was an anti-people move, which would adversely impact not only the poor people’s kitchens but also their electricity bills, and “it has happened exactly as feared”.
Bilawal said that during the past three years the PTI government’s policies had only brought about economic crisis. He said inflation had reached a historic level in “Naya Pakistan”, which was never seen before. He said only the PPP governments had rescued Pakistan from the economic crisis in the past. He said the PTI government had only given historic unemployment and price hikes. He said the PPP government also went to the IMF but “we never compromised on the interests of the poor people of the country”.
He said that after the Zia regime, the impact of Afghan jihad was felt in Pakistan in the shape of Kalashnikov culture, drugs, lawlessness and economic disaster, but Benazir Bhutto during her brief government of few months gave record employment not only to men but also women, besides introducing the optic fiber technology.
Party workers of Naundero Arshad Shah, Anwar Buriro and others informed the chairman about the issues faced by the residents, and demanded that encroachments on both sides of the Saidu Minor should not be removed, and that cardiac ward should be made operational. They also demanded that the labour complex be constructed in Naundero. One of the party workers demanded in her speech that Naundero Police Station may be shifted and a ladies park be constructed over its plot, as there was no park in the entire town. The head of the Hindu community, Seth Lok Chand, thanked the PPP chairman for releasing funds for the repair and renovation of their worship places.
MPA Faryal Talpur, MNA Khurshid Junejo, Sardar Ali Nawaz Jalbani and others also participated in the meeting.
