ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan today evening reduced petroleum products’ price by Rs10/liter and electricity tariff by Rs5 as part of a series of government’s measures to provide relief to the masses.
PM Khan said that the cabinet has decided not to increase petrol and electricity prices till the announcement of new budget in June 2022, for the upcoming fiscal year 2022-2023.
Prime Minister announced this while addressing the nation through TV channels on Monday evening. He also informed the countrymen about the country’s economic situation and the global challenges in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
“I received a summary from the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) and they recommended increasing the prices of petrol and diesel by Rs10 due to the increase in the price in the global markets,” he said.
“So today I want to tell you guys this good news that instead of increasing it, we will decrease [petrol prices] by Rs10.”
In the same way, he said that electricity was also being made from imported fuel which had caused prices to soar. Regretting the fact that past governments did not invest in building dams, he said the PTI government is constructing 10 dams which would save the country from global price fluctuations.
“We have also decided to decrease electricity prices by Rs5 per unit. This means that there will be a 20-25 per cent decrease in you electricity bills.”
He said that there would be no increase in petrol and electricity prices until the next budget.
PM stresses need for independent foreign policy
PM Imran began his speech by talking about the country’s foreign policy, stating that the situation in the world was changing which subsequently had an effect on Pakistan.
He said that his parents were born in an “enslaved India” which made him realise how lucky he was to be born in a free country as he was growing up.
“From the day I entered politics, I wanted a free and independent foreign policy. This means that a nation drafts a policy that benefits the country,” he said.
Highlighting an example of the “wrong foreign policy”, he said that Pakistan had participated in the American ‘war on terror’. “From day one, I said that we should not have participated [in the US war],” he said, adding that it did not ultimately benefit the country as 80,000 Pakistanis were martyred.
“The most embarrassing part was that, for the first time in history, a country was fighting in support of a country that was bombing it.”
He said that there were only 10 drone attacks during the government of former military ruler Gen Pervez Musharraf, but almost 400 during the rule of democratic leaders such as Nawaz Sharif and Asif Ali Zardari.
Circling back to a free independent foreign policy, PM Imran said that these democratic leaders should have taken a stand against the US. “Neither of them issued a single statement,” he said, adding that an American journalist quoted Zardari as saying to America’s army chief that he was not affected by the collateral damage from drone attacks.
