KARACHI: In line with its countrywide protest call given against economic policies of the federal government of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) on Friday took out rallies and staged demonstrations in different parts of the city against rising inflation and asked the prime minister to step down seeking early elections.

       The protest demonstrations were held in six districts of the city where different leaders of the opposition party led the protest.

       Being the ruling party in the province, the PPP enjoyed police support which blocked movement of traffic on roads to facilitate the protest demonstrations.

       Participants in the protest rallies amid strict police protocol and security arrangements for top PPP leaders chanted slogans against the federal government of PTI.

       The ruling party of Sindh holds citywide protest demos against price hike

       At Regal Chowk in Saddar, the party’s vice president Senator Sherry Rahman along with its Sindh general secretary Waqar Mehdi led the protest demonstration of the PPP’s South district.

       The PPP leaders accused the PTI government of following the directions of the International Monetary Fund, which had led to a human crisis in the country amid growing inflation and declining business activities.

       “The PTI government has broken a 70-year record of inflation in over the past three years,” said Ms Rahman while addressing the demonstration.

       “Everyone is out on roads protesting against this incompetent government and asking for the prime minister to resign. Inflation has reached nine per cent in Pakistan according to the World Bank which is higher than other South Asian countries in the region and instead of fixing this crisis, the government has also warned about further rise in inflation. This is exactly why PPP is marching today against crippling inflation, and unaffordable living conditions in so-called Naya Pakistan.”

       She said that the PPP would always be standing with the people of Pakistan as the party was on the same page with them unlike this government. Considering the prevailing situation, the resignation of the prime minister was a justified demand of the people, she claimed.

       In district Central, Sindh Minister for Women Welfare Syeda Shehla Raza led the protest demonstration at Liaquatabad No 10 while Senator Saleem Mandviwalla of the PPP addressed the participants in a Sohrab Goth locality where the party’s East district organised the anti-PTI protest.

       Off main National Highway, a protest demonstration was organised by the PPP’s Malir set-up where former Sindh chief minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah addressed a large number of participants in the rally.

       Senior PPP leader Taj Haider made a speech at the Singer Chowrangi in Korangi Industrial Area and the Sindh government spokesperson and Karachi Administrator Barrister Murtaza Wahab led the protest at main Banaras Chowrangi in district West.

       “It is clear to us that Prime Minister Imran Khan is no longer on one page with the people of Pakistan,” said Barrister Wahab. “Unemployment rate has reached 16 per cent this year whereas it was six per cent in 2018. This government continues to release dubious low unemployment rates, but it is quite clear that unemployment is on the rise. In fact, they have been dismissing employees instead of fulfilling their promises of 10 million jobs. On the other hand, poverty rate in Pakistan has been increasing since 2018, when it was 21.9 per cent and has now increased by 7.4 per cent in three years of this government.”

       Published in Dawn, October 30th, 2021