Unhappy with govt: Hundreds protest against inflation, overbilling

PTI leaders lead demonstration in front of Press Club.

LAHORE: Hundreds of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) supporters staged a protest demonstration on Wednesday against overbilling of electricity and inflation in front of Lahore Press Club.

PTI Punjab general secretary Yasmeen Rashid, information secretary Andleeb Abbas and Lahore president Abdul Aleem Khan led the demonstration that started at around 3pm.

The protester carried party flags and shouted ‘Go Nawaz Go’ and ‘War against Corrupt System’. They also danced to the tune of the PTI songs.

Traffic remained jammed in and around Shimla Pahari for nearly an hour. The PTI leadership had given the call for the protest at a press conference on Tuesday.

Rashid said such protests were going on across the country. “PTI supporters and the public have taken to the streets against the failed policies of the government.”

“Stop usurping our money,” she said.

She said PTI chairman Imran Khan had stood for the rights of common man. She slammed the government for taking a news channel off air saying that such actions frustrated freedom of the expression.

Khan said the government, upset by the protests against it, had started arresting PTI supporters. It is registering FIRs against them, he said.

“People are being oppressed for protesting against the government.”

He demanded that the government take back surcharges on electricity bills.

Farzana Begum, one of the protesters, said the government’s poor policies had compelled her to resort to street protest.

“The government is doing nothing for common man,” said Begum who is a nurse at a hospital.

“Inflation has made our lives miserable,” said Ahmad Khan, one of the protesters.

“We have had enough of the economic instability, poor law and order and political agitation.”

Published in The Express Tribune, October 23^rd, 2014.