Fuel fury sparks Sindh street protests

Nationalist leaders call mass action over soaring prices, accuse govt of economic mismanagement

HYDERABAD:

Reacting sternly to the leapfrogging fuel prices which have almost doubled in less than a month in the wake of the US imposed war on Iran, the Sindhi nationalist leaders have appealed to the people to take to the streets to vent their fury. The Sindh United Party's president Syed Zain Shah on Friday asked the people to hold protests to compel the government to either withdraw both the massive price hikes introduced after the war or to go home.

"It's beyond capacity of the common people to absorb the shock of such destructive price increase," he believed. Shah said the Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif and President Asif Ali Zardari should immediately suspend all the taxes and levies which are being collected on fuel to allow the prices to remain at an affordable level. "The people should not be punished for flawed economic policies of the incumbent government," he asserted.

Meanwhile, Qaumi Awami Tehreek's leader Ayaz Latif Palijo announced five-day protest across the province against the raise. "We vehemently condemn the skyrocketing fuel prices and the unbridled inflation." He alleged that the prices have been increased because the government has been taking dictations from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) with regard to the subsidies and a corrupt cabal. Palijo said organised protests will be unleashed to force the government to cancel the hike.

Sindh Taraqi Pasand Party's chairman Dr Qadir Magsi contended that the government is trying to snatch even two-time meals which the people were already hardly affording to arrange.