'Govt is left with no choice', says PM Shehbaz Sharif on fuel hike

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Thursday said that he was acutely aware of the impact that a fuel price hike causes but added that the government is left with no choice following an IMF deal, ARY NEWS reported.

In a series of messages from his personal Twitter handle, the prime minister said that the government had no choice but to raise the prices due to the IMF deal that the previous PTI government signed.

“Will take the nation into confidence on the specifics of the IMF-PTI deal soon,” PM Shehbaz Sharif said and vowed that the nation would get out of these economic difficulties soon.

“I wonder whether those who struck the worst ever deal with IMF and took patently bad economic decisions have the conscience to face the truth,” he said and further asked, “How can they pretend to be innocent when what the nation is going through is clearly their doing? Details soon.”

I wonder whether those who struck the worst ever deal with IMF & took patently bad economic decisions have the conscience to face the truth. How can they pretend to be innocent when what the nation is going through is clearly their doing? Details soon https://t.co/6Cjeimgfd1

— Shehbaz Sharif (@CMShehbaz) June 16, 2022

Earlier, on Wednesday initially it was reported that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has rejected the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) summary, seeking an increase in the prices of petroleum products from June 16.

However, minutes before the midnight, Finance Minister Miftah Ismail announced to jack up petrol price by Rs24 per litre.

He said government was not in a position to bear more subsidies anymore. He said that the new prices will come into effect from 12 am on June 15.

Miftah criticised the previous government’s policies that, according to him, “deteriorated the country’s economy”.

The finance minister said the incumbent government was bearing the brunt of that, adding that currently, Pakistan, on every litre, was bearing a loss of Rs24.3 on petrol, Rs59.16 diesel, Rs39.49 kerosene oil, and Rs39.16 on light diesel oil.