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Fuel price hike draws protest

ISLAMABAD - The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) on Monday boycotted the meeting of the Parliamentary Committee on National Security (PCNS) amid countrywide resentment over sharp hike in oil products and Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) prices.

Besides the PML-N, the price increase has been rejected by the Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaaf, and various business organisations. Two coalition partners, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) and the Awami National Party (ANP), have also repudiated the increase and called for its immediate withdrawal. Several organisations of traders, transporters and industrialists have threatened to launch a civil disobedience movement if the decision was not withdrawn.
Opposition Leader in the National Assembly Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan said in a statement that PML-N would hold a protest rally on Wednesday. He termed the hike as a cruel and unjust step that will add to miseries of the common man by further igniting inflation.
Coalition partners the MQM and the ANP rejected the increase in fuel prices, alleging that the PPP did not take them into confidence on the matter.
MQM lawmaker Asif Hussain said, “If the price-hike is not withdrawn, his party has some other options.” He said the matter would be decided in the meeting of Rabita Committee and the future strategy would be evolved. The MQM Coordination Committee said the increase in petrol prices was a crime against the public and the decision should be retracted immediately. The committee added that the government should cut down on its non-development expenditures instead of raising the petrol prices.
An ANP lawmaker Bushra Rehman said the well-off class should be brought into the tax net instead of putting more burden on the poor. The government should reduce its expenditures, she added.
Earlier, the All Pakistan Transport Owners Association (APTOA) had said if the government did not retract its decision, transporters would have no choice but to raise fares as it would not be possible to keep the transport running otherwise.
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• Pakistan