LAHORE: Opposition Leader in National Assembly Shehbaz Sharif has rejected the prime minister’s relief package as a pack of lies.

“Like promises and budget the so-called relief package of the incumbent government is also a pack of lies,” says Mr Sharif who is also president of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N).

“Had it not been claimed while announcing the [federal] budget that it’s a tax-free budget? Now it’s being confessed in the [prime minister’s] address to the nation that petrol prices will have to be raised.”

The opposition leader says electricity and gas tariffs will go up and prices of petroleum products also will be raised so how will inflation in the country be controlled. He says it will be self-deception to take seriously anything of the present government whose budget statistics are untrustworthy.

Read more: PM Imran announces 'biggest welfare package in Pakistan's history' to mitigate inflation impact

“Relief and [the ruling] PTI are two opposite things,” Mr Sharif says, lamenting that the country has been overburdened by debt while the conditions set by the IMF to seek further loan have crushed the masses.

The PML-N president regrets that the rates of edible oil and ghee have been raised by Rs65 per litre at a time when Imran Khan is announcing the so-called relief package.

He claims that present sugar stock can meet two-week domestic requirements only and the price of the sweetener is shooting up on a daily basis, while the ruler is craving for addressing the nation through television.

A government that has assured the IMF of abolishing all subsidies is deceiving the masses by announcing a Rs120 billion subsidy package, he says.

“Where will this money come from? How will this be spent?” Mr Sharif asks, recalling that the government still owes answers to Rs1,200 coronavirus as well as Karachi packages.

Also read: Prime minister's relief package for poor a lollipop, says Bilawal

'All stakeholders should sit together'

Opposition Leader in Punjab Assembly Hamza Shehbaz has reiterated his party’s view that all stakeholders should sit together to steer the country out of the crises.

“The country is facing crises on economic, security, and foreign fronts as well as disrespect of parliamentary forums, polarisation and [lack of skill about how] to control the difficult situation. The only way out of this worst situation is a joint sitting of all the stakeholders and holding a dialogue [on the strategy to resolve the issues],” he told German ambassador in Pakistan Bernhard Stephan Schlagheck here on Thursday.

Hamza said the PML-N had the capability to take along all stakeholders along and declared the acrimonious attitude of the incumbent government against state institutions and rival political parties as the biggest hurdle in steering the country towards the right direction.

He insisted that only fair and transparent elections and equal political opportunities for all could restore the confidence of the masses in democracy. He said a democratic system and political leadership curb the trends of violence and intolerance in society and recalled the success of the PML-N government in implementing the National Action Plan against extremism.

He told the diplomat that the PML-N was making preparations for the elections and had begun mobilising its cadre.

Published in Dawn, November 5th, 2021