Countrywide shutter down strike against inflated electricity bills, petrol price

Fed up with mind-blowing increase in the electricity and petrol prices as well as hike in the prices of other items, people took to streets on Saturday to register their protest as markets shuttered down throughout Pakistan, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.

JI holds protest demonstrations

As part of its countrywide protest against hike in electricity and petrol prices, Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) has set up a camp outside its headquarters in Mansoora area of Lahore.

The JI also led a protest demonstration on the National Highway at Shah Latif Abdullah Goth in Karachi, eventually resulting in a traffic jam.

Likewise, protestors, belonging to Jamaat as well as other citizens, blocked roads by burning tyres at Manzil Pump, Gulshan-i-Hadeed, Quaidabad, Patel Parra, Sher Shah, Orangi Town and other areas of the port city. 

Red Bus service also had to be suspended, while protestors forcibly shut down shops and restaurants at the National Highway.

At Shah Latif Town, on seeing police, the protestors lost their temper, and pelted the police vans with stones. 

Eventually these were the protestors who won as cops ran away to save themselves from the wrath of mobs of people.

The situation was no better at Quaidabad where people came out on streets to register their protest.

Traffic on roads leading to Port Qasim was suspended.    

Similarly, the party took out a rally from its office at Qambar in Sindh to vent anger at the government over inflation.

Holding placards in their hands, the protestors passed through different routes and shouted slogans against the caretaker government. They eventually assembled at the Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Press Club.

Speaking on the occasion, JI leaders said that the interim government, after taking office, had twice increased the petroleum products’ (POL) prices, which had unleashed a wave of inflation.  

They said how an ordinary person, earning Rs800 daily, could pay such inflated electricity bills.

Shutter down strike in Lahore

Complete shutter down strike was observed at Township locality of Lahore.

Traders also took out a rally and shouted slogans against the government as well as the IMF.

Transgender protest in twin cities

Equally perturbed over inflation, especially over extraordinary increase in electricity rates, members of the transgender community held a protest demonstration in Rawalpindi.

 

Holding placards in their hands inscribed with anti-government slogans, a large number of people belonging to the community laid siege to the Islamabad Electric Supply Company’s (IESCO) office at Mureerr Chowk, while a heavy police contingent took positions outside the office to maintain law and order. 

The protestors said that at no cost, they would accept an increase in electricity prices.

Their leader Almas Bobi demanded the government to withdraw the facility of free consumption of electricity by government servants.

Protest demonstrations continue in KP

Likewise, different political parties and traders go ahead with their demonstrations against price hike in Takht Bai and other cities of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP).

The protestors blocked roads, set electricity bills on fire, and closed all small and large shopping centers.

They shouted slogans against the WAPDA as well as the government.

Addressing the protestors, the speakers hit out at the government, saying the nation had landed in great trouble due to its flawed economic policies.

They alleged that in an effort to please the IMF, the government was bent upon destroying the country.

Similar demonstrations were reported from Kharian, Khanqah Dogran, Zhob, Jaafarabad, Shakargarh, Phalia, Malakwal and other areas.

Reporters: Hassan Ali, Saeed Ahmad, Fareeha Batool, Irshad Qureshi, Anusha Jaffery, Mairaj Akhtar, Muhammad Ramzan Mirani, Malik Rahman, Salman Salim, Syed Tanvir Naqvi, Ishtiaq Rabbani, Shuja Bhatti, Rizwan Butt, Nayyar Alam, Manzoor Hussain, Agha Muhsin Raza, Syed Liaqat Naqvi, Amir Shehzad, Yasir Arafat, Ishtiaq Rabbani, Mubashar Hassan Naqvi, Muhammad Imran, Zubair Awan, Dr. Muhammad Abbas, Abdus Shaheed Paracha, Aurangzeb Beg, Mian Ishfaq and Zahid Iqbal Rana