President for relief

PRESIDENT Asif Ali Zardari deserves appreciation for sensitizing the Government about its policies that have compounded miseries of the people and urging it to take all possible measures to provide relief to the common man. During a meeting with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, he gave voice to the woes of the people by instructing the Government to curb inflationary pressures and ensure the availability of essential commodities. In a related development, Senators expressed strong concern over uncalled-for decision of the Government to jack up prices of fuel every now and then, terming it ‘economic oppression’. There is a general impression that the goodwill the Government earned because of its dynamic diplomacy and formidable defence of the motherland was effectively countered by the mindless pursuit of the policy to raise money at the cost of the common man. There is also a feeling that the Government has used the Middle-East crisis to cover up its failures on the tax collection front and putting an extraordinary burden on people of Pakistan at a time when they direly needed relief. It is because of this that the head of the state pointed out that despite the difficult geographical and regional situation, tensions in the Middle East and disruption of the supply chain, maximum relief should be provided to the people. Regrettably, instead of taking concrete measures to provide relief to the masses, the Government is trying to play with galleries by announcing extension of the so-called austerity measures despite the fact that these measures provided worthless as these had no bearing on the life of the people. The measures extended included a 50 per cent reduction in fuel allowance for official vehicles, with the exemption of operational vehicles such as ambulances and public buses. Other steps included grounding 60pc of official vehicles and a complete ban on foreign visits by ministers and government officials, excluding those deemed essential for the country’s inter