Govt to hike gas tariff by 400% on New Year's eve, warns Shehbaz Sharif

• Government all set to drop gas bomb on masses on eve of New Year, warns Shehbaz Sharif.  
• “People are standing in long queues and recalling the old Pakistan," says PML-N leader.
• “Inflation, long queues, U-turns, lies have become identification marks of new Pakistan,” he says. 
  

ISLAMABAD: PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif Thursday warned that the government is all set to increase the gas tariff by a whopping 400% on New Year's eve.

Consumers will have to pay an additional Rs1,000 from January 2020 as the government has planned to drop a gas bomb on the masses, said the PML-N leader.

Lashing out at the PTI-led government over its “incompetency, inflation and corruption”, Shehbaz said that after gas, a sugar crisis is again looming in the country. Talking about the price of sugar, the PML-N leader said that the commodity was available for Rs52 per kilogramme in PML-N's tenure and is now being sold for Rs130 to Rs150 per kg.

Referring to the long queues at petrol pumps across the country amid a strike by petroleum dealers, Shehbaz Sharif said, “People are standing in long queues and recalling the old Pakistan and Nawaz Sharif.”

“Inflation, long queues, U-turns and lies have become the identification marks of [the] new Pakistan,” he added.  

The poor are dying of starvation due to the policies of the prevailing government, the PML-N leader said.

'Govt has brought the entire nation to the ration card' 

Earlier, on November 5, reacting to the hike in prices, PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif had said that since the incumbent government came to power, it had brought the entire nation to "the ration card".

"Imran Khan lets the axe of inflation fall on the public and then wonders why inflation is surging in the country," he tweeted. "Over the last three years, the price of edible oil has increased by over 130%," he had added.

The PML-N president had said that the price of edible oil going up from Rs160 to Rs369 was unjustified, adding that a "storm of inflation" had followed the prime minister's announcement of a relief package for the masses.