Pakistan: Jammat-e-Islami leader calls for shutter-down strike against inflation, inflated power bills today

Rawalpindi [Pakistan]: Jammat-e-Islami (JI) leader Ameer Sirajul Haq announced that a shutter-down strike will be observed across the country on Saturday to protest against rising inflation in the country, ARY News reported.

According to the report, the JI Leader called on the countrymen to come out in protest against rising inflation and inflated electricity bills and make the nationwide strike successful.

Addressing the youth convention in Rawalpindi, Haq came down heavily on the current interim government in Pakistan for plunging the country into a crisis and making the economy dependent on handouts from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), according to the report.

Lashing out at Pakistan's caretaker Prime Minister Anwar ul Haq Kakar for seeking the IMF's permission for subsidies to bring some respite to the people facing steeling inflation and inflated power bills, he said the latter was putting the interests of the international agency over public good.

Sirajul Haq said that the parties in the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM), the interim ruling coalition, have turned the country into a slave of the IMF.

Protests against exorbitant electricity prices and inflated bills have spread across the country — from Karachi to Khyber.

Some protests have even turned violent, according to reports.

People in Karachi held demonstrations against the excessive power tariffs of K-Electric, the city's only electricity provider.

Locals hit the streets venting their outrage over rising electricity costs and inflated tariffs.