ISLAMABAD: Petroleum Minister Musadik Malik said on Tuesday his government would keep the gas prices unchanged until winter months of December and January, Pakistani state media reported, amid rising costs of living in Pakistan.
In February this year, Pakistan’s caretaker government had increased the price of natural gas by up to 67 percent for residential consumers in a bid to meet one of the key fiscal tightening conditions of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for the final review of its last bailout program, worth $3 billion, that ended in April.
The gas price for protected consumers category of up to 0.25 cubic hectometers (hm3) and up to 0.9 hm3 was increased to Rs200 from Rs121 and Rs350 from Rs300, or between 40 percent and 67 percent, while the rates for non-protected category consuming up to 0.25 hm3 to above 4 hm3 was raised to Rs500 to Rs4,200, or between 5 percent to 25 percent.
Malik denied reports of any further increase in gas tariff and said the government was striving to avoid placing any additional burden on the people, the state-run APP news agency reported.
“If the need arises to provide relief, we will make decisions in consultation with all provinces and move forward together,” he was quoted as saying. “Our aim is to avoid increasing gas prices.”
Pakistan’s inflation rate surged to a historic high of 38 percent in May 2023, but has since declined to clock in at 11.1 percent in July. The central bank has also revised its inflation forecast upwards from 20-22 percent to 23-25 percent for the current fiscal year due to a hike in energy prices.
Pakistan, which imports most of its energy needs, saw days of protests last month over the rising costs of living, mainly fueled by energy price hikes. The protests prompted Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to announce a three-month, Rs50 billion subsidy for electricity consumers using up to 200 units a month.
Malik said 86 percent consumers using up to 200 units had been given relief from the federal government, while 98 percent of domestic electricity consumers, who used up to 500 units, had been provided relief by the Punjab government, urging other provincial governments to offer similar relief.
Pakistan to keep gas prices unchanged until winter months — petroleum minister
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Pakistan to keep gas prices unchanged until winter months — petroleum minister
- In February, Pakistan’s caretaker government had increased the price of natural gas by up to 67 percent for residential consumers
- Pakistan last month saw days of protests over the rising costs of living, mainly fueled by exorbitant hikes in energy prices
Imran Khan not a ‘national security threat,’ ex-PM’s party responds to Pakistan military
- Pakistan’s military spokesperson on Friday described Khan’s anti-army narrative as a “national security threat”
- PTI Chairman Gohar Ali Khan says words used by military spokesperson for Khan were “not appropriate”
ISLAMABAD: Former prime minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party on Saturday responded to allegations by Pakistan military spokesperson Lt. Gen. Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry from a day earlier, saying that he was not a “national security threat.”
Chaudhry, who heads the military’s media wing as director general of the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), spoke to journalists on Friday, in which he referred to Khan as a “mentally ill” person several times during the press interaction. Chaudhry described Khan’s anti-army narrative as a “national security threat.”
The military spokesperson was responding to Khan’s social media post this week in which he accused Chief of Defense Forces Field Marshal Asim Munir of being responsible for “the complete collapse of the constitution and rule of law in Pakistan.”
“The people of Pakistan stand with Imran Khan, they stand with PTI,” the party’s secretary-general, Salman Akram Raja, told reporters during a news conference.
“Imran Khan is not a national security threat. Imran Khan has kept the people of this country united.”
Raja said there were several narratives in the country, including those that created tensions along ethnic and sectarian lines, but Khan had rejected all of them and stood with one that the people of Pakistan supported.
PTI Chairman Gohar Ali Khan, flanked by Raja, criticized the military spokesperson as well, saying his press talk on Thursday had “severely disappointed” him.
“The words that were used [by the military spokesperson] were not appropriate,” Gohar said. “Those words were wrong.”
‘NATURAL OUTCOME’
Speaking to reporters earlier on Saturday, Pakistan’s Defense Minister Khawaja Asif defended the military spokesperson’s remarks against Khan.
“When this kind of language is used for individuals as well as for institutions, then a reaction is a natural outcome,” he said.
“The same thing is happening on the Twitter accounts being run in his [Khan’s] name. If the DG ISPR has given any reaction to it, then I believe it was a very measured reaction.”
Khan, who was ousted after a parliamentary vote of confidence in April 2022, blames the country’s powerful military for removing him from power by colluding with his political opponents. Both deny the allegations.
The former prime minister, who has been in prison since August 2023 on a slew of charges he says are politically motivated, also alleges his party was denied victory by the army and his political rivals in the 2024 general election through rigging.
The army and the government both deny his allegations.
