Munawar Hasan see Civil disobedience over POL, power hike

Lahore: Ameer, Jamaat e Islami, Pakistan, Syed Munawar Hasan, has denounced the sharp increase in electricity tariff and the POL prices, terming it something unbearable.

In a statement here on Tuesday, he said that the so frequent raises in POL and electricity prices during the last four months had created deep hatred for the present rulers in the masses and the present raise could prove to be the last straw on the camel’s back.

He said it was an irony that whereas the POL prices in the world market had declined and accordingly, India had also reduced POL prices, the Pakistan government had sharply raised the prices to meet IMF conditions.

The JI Ameer said the fresh raise in POL and electricity rates would cause a flood of price hike and the poor masses would be virtually buried alive.

He said, if this raise was not withdrawn, the masses could start civil disobedience. He said the popularity of the PML(N) government had come down to zero  within first four months of its rule and if it did not provide any relief to the people, its days would be numbered. The PML(N) government had not proved itself any better than the Zardari regime and it seemed the present rulers had not learnt any lesson from their past mistakes. The JI Ameer remarked.

He said, the PML (N) top leaders, during their election campaign, had been targeting the PPP leadership for its corruption and had vowed to extract every penny of their ill gotten money, but now this seemed to be a chapter lost and closed.

The JI Ameer said that relief could be provided to the masses only if the rulers cut down their spending, brought their wealth lying in foreign banks back to the country,  controlled corruption and recovered the billions of the plundered national wealth from the corrupt in every walk of life.

He noted that the government had begun a drive against power theft but when if was found that the majority of the culprits belonged to the ruling party, the whole exercise was stopped.

Meanwhile, deputy Secretary General, JI, Dr Farid Ahmed Piracha, in his statement on the issue, said that the masses had given a mandate to the ruling party for bringing down the prices to the 1999 level, and not for the economic murder of the people. He lamented that the government priority were the IMF and the industrialist and the business community and not the common.