The Pakistan Economy Watch (PEW) on Friday said government has hit masses hard with CNG bomb on the eve of new financial year.
Government is to punish the masses for their inefficiency, mismanagement and corruption by hike in the domestic and commercial gas tariff soon, it said.
Dr Murtaza Mughal, President PEW, said that the decision to keep CNG filling stations closed for two days in Sindh and for three days in Punjab is a politically motivated move aimed at settling score with opposition and gaining cheap popularity which will hurt harmony between provinces.
He said that the government continued to inflict punishment on masses for choosing democracy.
Poor will continue to pay the price for blunders by the rulers and mismanagement of natural resources, he added.
“Masses are not responsible for declined production of gas, insufficient exploration and ignoring alternative sources of energy such as Iranian gas and Thar Coal,” he said.
Dr Murtaza said that closing CNG stations on the pretext of supplying gas to power generation units holds no water as the CNG sector consumes 7 per cent of the total gas productions.
Masses must know where the rest of the gas is flowing and who the beneficiaries are, he demanded.
This decision to keep CNG stations closed and hike gas tariff for fertilizer plants by 100 per cent will result in inflation, sluggish agricultural growth, low yield, costly transportation, economic degradation and overall economic downturn, he said.
Such a decision will also shake the confidence of investors who invested in billions in CNG sector following the assurances of the top government officials.
He said that when masses can launch a movement to restore Chief Justice, they can launch another movement to get relief.
