“Relief and PTI are two contradictory things,” said Shahbaz as he rejected PM Imran Khan’s relief package….reports Asian Lite News
Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President Shahbaz Sharif has lashed out at Prime Minister Imran Khan-led ruling PTI government over inflation and said the country is undergoing a sugar crisis because the current stock of the sweetener would only last 15 more days.
“[Despite the crisis], the PM has nothing better to do than rendering lip services through his speeches,” Geo News quoted Shahbaz as saying.
He said that the price of sugar increased by Rs 5 per kilogram, taking the rate in the wholesale market beyond Rs 130 per kg.
“Relief and PTI are two contradictory things,” said Shahbaz as he rejected PM Imran Khan’s relief package.
Meanwhile, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) leader Saeed Ghani said that sugar prices are incessantly increasing while petrol prices have increased for the fourth time in a given period, Geo News reported.
On Wednesday, Imran Khan announced “country’s biggest-ever” subsidy package worth Rs 120 billion, providing 30 per cent discount on ghee, flour, and pulses to support 130 million people by ebbing away from the impact of inflation.
Shortly after Khan’s announcement opposition leaders had criticised the move and had called it an “acceptance of the government’s failure” and “nothing but a joke”, said the Pakistani publication.
Taking to Twitter, PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari had said that the PM’s package is “too little for 200 million people,” Geo News reported.
Following suit, former senator and PPP leader Sherry Rehman had termed PM Imran Khan’s address to the nation a “bizarre speech”, and called the premier the “Blame Minister of Pakistan”.
Earlier Shehbaz said that PM Imran Khan is targeting the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and provoking federal ministers to “frontally attack” the election commission.
As per reports, PM Imran Khan had asked federal ministers to back Fawad Chaudhry, Minister for Information and Azam Swati, Minister for Railways during their election commission hearings who were served notices by the ECP after they levelled serious allegations against the constitutional body, reported Geo News.
“Imran Khan’s advice to his ministers to ‘support’ two of their cabinet colleagues is a provocation to frontally attack Election Commission,” said the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) president Shehbaz Sharif.
“He is targeting ECP at a time of massive internal and external challenges. He cannot be allowed to browbeat our institutions into submission,” Shehbaz added.
Shehbaz Sharif said that PM Imran Khan “cannot be allowed to browbeat our institutions into submission”, reported Geo News.
Swati had accused the ECP of taking money from companies that make electronic voting machines during a meeting of the Senate Standing Committee for Parliamentary Affairs on September 10.
Meanwhile, Chaudhry had said that the ECP has “become the headquarters for Opposition parties” and the chief election commissioner is “acting as their mouthpiece”, during a press conference the same day.
The ECP served notices to Chaudhry and Swati on September 16, seeking explanations within a week from both the ministers for accusations against CEC Sikander Sultan Raja and the commission. (ANI)