Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan on Friday came down hard on the federal government for bowing to the demands of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and increasing the prices of petroleum products.
Last night, Finance Minister Miftah Ismail announced a Rs30 per litre increase in the price of petrol to pave way for the revival of the IMF programme. As per the new fuel prices, petrol is available at Rs209.86 per litre, high-speed diesel (HSD) at Rs204.15, kerosene oil at Rs181.94 and light diesel oil at Rs178.31. Only the price of kerosene oil was increased by less than Rs30.
This is the second increase in the price of petroleum products over the past fortnight. Earlier, the government had hiked the prices by Rs30 as it reduced subsidies on fuel.
Addressing a rally in Buner, the ousted prime minister chided the government over record inflation and alleged that the government did not care about the nation as the ruling leadership had its money stashed abroad.
He called the government “slaves of the IMF and the US” for complying with the demands of the fund to restore the bailout package.
Imran said the IMF had also asked his government to increase the price of petroleum products but he did not agree to their demands.
“Instead of increasing the prices, we decreased petroleum prices by Rs10 to provide relief to the people,” he said, adding that the funds to provide the subsidy were diverted from elsewhere.
According to Imran, the incumbent government relented to the IMF demands and hiked prices of petroleum products because “they have no stake” in Pakistan as their children and wealth were abroad.
The PTI chairman also compared the three and a half years of his rule with the two months of the current government. He added that during PTI’s rule, the price of a 20 kg bag of flour increased by Rs326 but during the last two months, there was an increase of Rs422 in the price of flour.
Similarly, Basmati Rice witnessed a hike of Rs55/kg compared to Rs40 during the PTI rule. The price of Ghee increased by Rs200 over the past two months whereas the petrol price was increased by Rs60 per litre by the government, he added.
