KARACHI:Sindh Information and Labour Minister, Saeed Ghani, has said the Pakistan People’s Party and people of Karachi reserve the right to stage a protest sit-in outside Sindh Governor House as the place symbolizes the federal government in the city against whose incompetence and anti-people policies the PPP has been doing agitation. The Sindh Information and Labour Minister stated this on Friday while talking to media persons here at the Sindh Assembly building.
Ghani mentioned on the occasion that the People’s Party had been holding protests all over the country against natural gas crisis, hike in the prices of essential products, incompetence, ill-advised and anti-people economic policies of the present federal government.
He said that the activists of the PPP had as much the right to do protest outside Governor House in Karachi as much the Opposition political parties in the province possessed the right to do agitation at the Sindh Assembly or Chief Minister against the new local government amendment bill. He hoped that the Opposition in the province would not object if the PPP chose to do protest at Sindh Governor House as part of its series of agitation against the unjust policies of the federal government.
He reminded the Opposition parties in the province that the Sindh Assembly was the only appropriate forum, which should be approached by them to duly present amendments to improve the provincial local government law. He said the Opposition parties instead of using the forum of legislature had done agitation and staged the walkout as per their usual practice in the house when provincial local government amendment bill was presented in the Sindh Assembly.
The Sindh Information Minister said that the taxation burden on the masses in the country would be increased by Rs 160 billion because of the newly presented mini budget of the federal government.
He said the federal government had wrongly claimed that the people of the country had to merely bear an additional burden of Rs two billion as the result of the mini budget. He said the withdrawal of exemption earlier given to raw material imported for medicine manufacturing in the country would further increase inflation in the country. He also condemned the federal government’s decision to impose taxes to the tune of billions of rupees on the machinery used by the industries in the country as this act would further the process of retardation of the national economy.
He said the people of the country were directly affected due to unprecedented hikes in the prices of electricity, gas, dollar, sugar, wheat flour, petrol, and other essential products. He hoped that a small minority of the concerned lawmakers of ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf would do agitation and would not vote to pass the newly presented budget as they had to face the public to seek their votes in the next general elections. Ghani said that he was not hopeful about Muttahida Quami Movement being an ally of the present federal government to take such an usual step to prove their loyalty and commitment to the people. He said the MQM had the plans to disturb situation of peace in the city.