Nawaz slams price hike, Darbar blast as family meets him

LAHORE: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supremo Nawaz Sharif has expressed serious concerns over the fast increasing price-hike especially the new hike in petroleum products prices, saying it would literally crush the poor masses.

He was talking to his family members including women who called on him at Kot Lakhpat jail on Thursday afternoon, led by his daughter Maryam Nawaz Sharif. His personal physician Dr Adnan Khan also accompanied the family members, according to family sources. Nawaz Sharif was grieved at the martyrdom of civilians and elite police personnel in suicide blast at Data Darbar, and a new wave of terrorism in the country, said PML-N Punjab Information Secretary Azma Bukhari, MPA, while talking to The News.

She regretted that several party leaders including her were not allowed a meeting with Nawaz Sharif on Thursday. “Even the request of the family members was allowed at the last moment and Maryam Nawaz was informed on Thursday morning about the permission to meet her father,” she said. Nawaz Sharif was in high spirits. The family members and doctor spent over one hour with him and also had lunch with him, she added. She said Nawaz Sharif expressed deep sympathies with the families of those martyred and wounded in Data Darbar attack.

About the proposed movement against the government for subjecting the masses to severe price-hike, Azma said the PML-N leadership would finalise the schedule of the movement after Eid. “We don’t want to spoil the joys of Eid for journalists and masses,” she added.