Practical steps needed to provide people with relief 

Senior Journalists and analysts have called the Rs1000 subsidy proposal a joke with the public. The government should devise a comprehensive strategy to control inflation to provide the people with real relief, Salim Bokhari, Iftikhar Ahmed, PJ Mir and Javed Iqbal remarked during 24NewsHD TV programme DNA.

Salim Bokhari said the government should not insult the people if it fails to deliver. Javed Iqbal said that it is a joke that first adds five to six billion rupees and then try to satisfy by giving a subsidy of one or two billion rupees.

He made a request to Prime Minister Imran Khan not to turn a deaf ear to public complaints. PM Imran’s lectures on economy, governance, religion and inflation have nothing to do with public problems, Javed said, adding that if they are aware of the plight of the people, they will take some practical steps.

Regarding SBP Governor Raza Baqir's appreciation of the dollar, PJ Mir said that he had made unnecessary statements due to which he was being criticized. Pakistan did not get an encouraging response from the IMF, he said.

Salim Bokhari said the United States is angry over ‘Absolutely Not’ and it will pressurise Pakistan through its means.

If there are no talks with the IMF, the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank can also withdraw, he added.

Iftikhar Ahmed took up the matter of PDM protest against the government’s failure to control inflation.

If the people take to the streets, it can jolt the government, he said. The Prime Minister reached Lahore and had meetings with Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar and Governor Chaudhry Muhammad Sarwar.

The banned religious party’s protest also came under discussion. The senior journalist and analysts laid stress on stepping up efforts to get this problem fixed as things will spin out of control, leaving the common people in the lurch.