PTI slams govt over Rs1.8bn package for bureaucrats

ISLAMABAD: The PTI on Saturday criticised the government for continuously increasing fuel prices while simultaneously allowing a Rs1.8 billion special allowance package for top bureaucrats who already receive free fuel.

PTI Information Secretary Sheikh Waqas Akram said ordinary Pakis­tanis were subjected to a six-day petroleum monsoon that drove petrol to Rs335.18 and diesel to Rs383.46 per litre.

He observed that the rulers have perfected a dual system: free fuel and luxuries for the elite, and daily fuel bombs for the public.

Agriculture, transport and industry are being systematically executed under the excuse of international markets.

“PTI demands the immediate rollback of the six-day cumulative hike; a sharp cut in the Rs80 per litre petroleum levy and the overall Rs1.7 trillion levy target; and the complete scrap of the disastrous daily pricing mechanism,” Mr Akram said.

He added that Rs1.8 billion bure­aucratic bonus should be cancelled.

On the agricultural front, Mr Akram called the government’s sudden decision to import 1.1 million metric tonnes of wheat the most transparent fraud.

After claiming a bumper harvest of over 29m tonnes against a domestic consumption of 27m tonnes, he said the sudden shortage and the mysterious disappearance of 4.5m tonnes raised questions of monumental incompetence.

“PTI demands full transparency on production and stock figures, an immediate forensic audit of the missing 4.5m tonnes, the declaration of an agricultural emergency, cancellation of unnecessary imports, and an immediate announcement of next season’s minimum support price,” he said.

In Sindh, Mr Akram accused the provincial government of reducing the Sindh Public Service Commission’s 2024 exam results to a political marketplace, demanding an independent forensic audit and the cancellation of tainted results.

In Azad Kashmir, he condemned what he described as the ruling alliance’s pre-poll theatrics. Dispatching 10 electric buses adorned with Maryam Nawaz’s photographs, funded by Punjab taxpayers, constitutes open electoral bribery and a mockery of the election code, Mr Akram said.

Published in Dawn, July 26th, 2026