Jamaat-i-Islami chief Sirajul Haq has announced to protest countrywide against the inflation from 20th February. Sirajul Haq while addressing outside the National Press Club said that his party would protest against the rise in prices of essential items. He said the government policies were hitting hard every individual from doctor, farmer and transporter to daily wager, student and shopkeeper. People were starving to death and long queues could be seen for the purchase of sugar, flour and other food items in front of every store because of their severe shortage from the market. He further maintained that sugar and flour mafias had created a fake shortage of the commodities and earned billions of rupees through it in just matter of couple of days. The prime minister, he lamented, was unable to call for a transparent inquiry into the crises knowing the reality his closed ones were involved in the scam. He said it was an irony that a country which was one of the top producers of wheat and sugarcane in the world was unable to meet the demand of its masses. He said a typical mafia was looting the country resources with both hands for decades and turning a common man from poor to poorer. The JUI chief appealed to the people to become part of the protest movement against inflation. He said that government is providing Rs 10 billion subsidy to deceive the people.