PM Nawaz Sharif announced earlier today that petrol and diesel prices have been reduced by Rs5 per litre. Even though global prices are well below 30 dollars a barrel. Up from a high of well above 100 a few years back. Yet the govt has announced only a mere pittence of a decrease.
“It is my pleasure to announce that petrol and diesel prices have been further reduced by Rs5 per litre,” the premier said while addressing the media. “Inflation rate has also fallen below two per cent,” he added.
The government was expected to slash domestic retail prices of petroleum products by up to 17 per cent for February 2016.
“As per my personal assessment it, (the price) can be [cut] by more or less Rs5, and it is not final at all,” Petroleum Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi told a National Assembly panel in Islamabad on Thursday.
However, sources in the petroleum ministry have suggested that the cut could be bigger.
According to a proposal forwarded to the finance ministry by the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra), prices of petrol could be cut by Rs7.56 per litre (9.9 per cent), bringing it down from the current level of Rs76.25 to Rs68.69.
“Not only has the rate of inflation decreased, the country has also seen a drastic fall in the level of corruption,” PM Nawaz said.
“The country is going through an economic breakthrough, the level of foreign investments has never been this high.”
Discussing the country’s security situation, the premier said, “By the recent attacks, terrorists just want to show their presence and that they are still powerful, however that is not true,” he said, “Operation Zarb-e-Azb is proof that we are stronger than the terrorists.”
Zarb-e-Azb is yielding positive results, the premier reiterated.
Informing the reporters about Pakistan’s role as a mediator in the ongoing Saudi-Iran rift, the premier stated that Pakistan chose to help the two countries because it felt that tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran should be resolved.
Earlier this month, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said he considered ending the conflict between Saudi Arabia and Iran a sacred mission. “Pakistan will appoint a focal person for the resolution of the issue and will ask the two countries also designate focal persons [to resolve the issue],” he said while talking to media after the meeting with Iranian President Hassan Rowhani.
PM Nawaz said Riyadh and Tehran were cognizant of the threat of terrorism and extremism, adding the Muslim world needed to bring unity in their ranks.
