ANP stages protest against price-hike across KP

PESHAWAR: The Awami National Party (ANP) on Sunday staged protest rallies across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa against unprecedented price-hike and frequent increase in the prices of petroleum products in the country.

In the provincial capital, senior leader of the Pakhtun nationalist party and former federal minister, Ghulam Ahmad Bilour and former provincial minister Syed Aqil Shah led the protest rally in front of Peshawar Press Club.

The rally participants chanted slogans against the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf government for its failed economic policy and unprecedented price-hike. Speaking on the occasion, Ghulam Ahmad Bilour said that the government had failed to control the skyrocketing prices of edible items and items of daily use. “The poor and middle class people can’t not afford the high prices of essential items,” the ANP leader said and added that the prices of essential items and the fares would also increase after the hike in the prices of petroleum products.

The prices of essential items, including ghee, cooking oil, sugar and wheat flour, had increased manifold during the PTI-led government, he added. Syed Aqil Shah said that besides edible items, the rates of gas, electricity and other utility bills had also registered an upward trend while salaries and wages of workers had not been increased.

“Ironically, the prime minister and the federal and provincial ministers are claiming that there is no price-hike and high inflation in the country and that masses are quite satisfied with the performance of the government,” he lamented.

The district organisations of the ANP also held protest rallies in all big cities of the province against price-hike where the provincial and local leaders of the party participated. In Nowshera, ANP general secretary Mian Iftikhar Hussain led the protest rally at main Shubra Chowk.

“This government has failed on all fronts and masses are suffering due to inflation and price hike,” he said amidst anti-government slogans. Provincial general secretary of the ANP and parliamentary party leader in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly Sardar Hussain Babak led the demonstration in his native Buner district.

He said the government had neither adopted any practical step to control the increasing prices of essential commodities nor given subsidies to provide relief to the common man. “The present government has given unprecedented price-hike, unemployment and lawlessness to the nation as a gift during its three years tenure,” he said. The prices of life-saving medicines have increased to please the pharmaceutical companies in the country, he went on to add.

The party workers also staged protest rallies in Swat, Charsadda, Dir, Bannu, Kohat, Mardan, Swabi, Bajaur, Khyber, Mohmanad, Chitral, Torghar and other parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa against the price-hike.