Daily Times

Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Political Communication and PTI leader Shahbaz Gill had landed himself into trouble for defending the POL price hike and comparing it to India. Shahbaz Gill tweeted, “Oil prices in India are still in double-figure that of Pakistan. Both countries buy oil from abroad and payments are in dollars at the same price. But the price of oil in India is double – per capita purchasing power in India is much less than in Pakistan. Poverty is also less there but petrol prices are double.” Netizens were surprised and shocked that SAPM was comparing Pakistan to India on a recent petrol hike. A Twitter user Syed Zulfiqar Hussain urged SAPM to stop comparing Pakistan to India and start focusing on reducing the petroleum prices. Another user said Zakir Ullah commented, “This game of comparison is no more valid. The value of 1 Indian rupee is equal to 0.75 US dollar while 1 PKR is equal to 1.71 US dollar. If you can’t control the inflation and negative trade deficit then don’t curtail your debris by your comparison system which we are hearing since 1947.” Another user Shiraz Aqeel urged the special assistant to accept the government’s mistakes instead of defending them. It may be mentioned here that there were hundreds of tweets which the netizens were posted bulldozing the special assistant’s comparison but they do not qualify to be referred here because they contained abusive content.