Khyber Pakhtunkhwa [Pakistan], August 17 : Traders, transporters in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have rejected the unprecedented increase in prices of petroleum products and have demanded the caretaker prime minister, Anwarul Haq, to withdraw the decision, Dawn reported.
Dawn is a Pakistani English-language newspaper.
The goods transporters have threatened to launch an agitation if the government does not reverse its decision within ten days.
Sarhad Chamber of Commerce and Industry acting president Ijaz Khan Afridi and Pakistan Peoples Party Peshawar spokesman Tariq Raheem in their separate statements on Wednesday termed the hike in fuel price detrimental for the country’s economy and demanded immediate withdrawal of the decision to avert the people's reaction.
Afridi said that the decision would increase the cost of industrial production and consequently the prices of all items would go up which could directly affect the inflation-stricken people.
“We expect that the caretaker government will take measures to put the ailing national economy on the right track. Economy, businesses and industries have confronted a severe crisis owing to flawed economic policies of the former governments,” he said, as per Dawn.
Afridi further said that many industrial units were shut down owing to an increase in power and gas tariffs that triggered unemployment in the province. He said that SCCI along with traders would strongly protest if the enforcement of anti-business policies was not stopped.
He said that prices of petroleum products were reduced in the neighbouring countries but their rates were increasing in Pakistan. “It is completely incomprehensible and unacceptable,” he added, according to Dawn.
The SCCI chief said that government should sense the gravity of the situation and take steps for flourishing businesses and industries to support the fragile national economy.
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