Karachi:Pasban Democratic Party (PDP) Chairman Altaf Shakoor has said that costly electricity is a death knell for economy and the rulers must refrain from destroying the national economy with their own hands.
In a statement here, he said the sitting government of Pakistan Tehreek e Insaf (PTI) during last one and half year has already increased electricity tariff for 15 times and now it is again preparing to hike electricity tariff next month. He said this is not only betrayal to the electoral slogans of PTI but a sheer cruelty and injustice with Pakistan and its economy.
He said during the government of Prime Minister Imran Khan, the rates of oil, gas and electricity have been raised with such a high speed that its parallel example could not be found in whole world. He said PTI government of Imran Khan only believes in squeezing more and more direct and indirect taxes from the poor people of Pakistan and repeated fuel adjustments are an example of this anti-people mentality of rulers. He said that when the poor people cry, the rulers tell them that peace and tranquility is only in graves. He said the government of Imran Khan is bent to eliminate the poor instead of eliminating poverty.
Altaf Shakoor said now the anti-people rulers are again preparing to shift additional burden of Rs405billion to the poor masses through increase in electricity tariff, possibly next month. He said this government is the least sensitive regime towards the problems of the poor people in the history of Pakistan.
He said NEPRA and KE have been given a free hand to loot and plunder the electricity consumers. He said before being elected Imran Khan used to talk about giving relief to poor Pakistanis but after being Prime Minister his government is heaping miseries of price hike and inflation on the poor Pakistanis instead of giving them an iota of relief. He said despite 8-hours a day load shedding the billing amounts of electricity consumers are constantly increasing. He said the apathetic government wants to snatch bread from the children of Pakistani people. He said poverty is rising with every passing day and people are committing suicides.
He said the sluggish economy has already rendered millions of people jobless during last one and half years. He said instead of creating more jobs and the government is slapping wrong and anti-people policies to spur joblessness. He said when it is the matter of financially pressurizing and burdening the people of Pakistan the sitting government is ready to take any sort of u-turn. He said education, healthcare, housing, employment and social security have become a distant dream in the tenure of sitting government and if this is the promised ‘Naya Pakistan’, the people of Pakistan reject it altogether.