LAHORE: Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) on Thursday rejected Prime Minister Imran Khan’s ‘biggest relief package’, terming it a ‘bundle of lies.’

The premier announced the country’s biggest-ever subsidy package worth Rs120 billion on Wednesday, providing a 30 per cent discount on ghee, flour and pulses to support 130 million people. The beneficiaries of the package would be able to avail of the discount for the next six months.

The prime minister had said that some 20 million families would benefit from the package to be funded jointly by the federal and provincial governments.

While speaking about the rising prices of petroleum products, PM said that the government had no option but to increase the price in the future.

PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif, in a statement, said: “Did the government not say at the time of announcing the budget that it is a tax-free budget? Now, while addressing the nation, it said that petrol will be expensive in the country soon.”

The leader of the opposition in the National Assembly wondered how inflation would be tackled when the prices of gas, electricity and petrol would swell.

“To take seriously a government whose budget figures were unreliable is called nothing but self-deception. Relief for masses and PTI government are two opposite things,” he added.

According to Shehbaz, the country had been trapped under the burden of foreign debts, and the terms of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) also doubled the troubles of the nation.

“Sugar price has surpassed Rs130 per kilogramme in the wholesale market, while the price of a 50-kilogramme bag has climbed by Rs270 in Quetta. The price of sugar increased by Rs5 per kilogramme in two days. The nation does not trust any of the government’s statements based on false promises,” said the PML-N leader.

He also claimed that the remaining sugar stock could be used for another 15 days, and the prime minister was fulfilling his wish of addressing the nation on TV.

PM Imran should have resigned by acknowledging his failure rather than addressing the nation after setting historic inflation records, Sharif insisted.

He said that PTI was trying to conceal its incompetence, corruption and wrong decisions by declaring inflation as a global issue.

“Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif showed how government affairs are run by bringing the rate of development at 5.8 per cent and inflation at 3.6 per cent,” said Sharif.

“If you will take Rs15,000 billion debt in three years, then inflation is bound to rise” in the country, he added.

Meanwhile, PML-N leader Hina Pervaiz Butt on Thursday submitted a resolution in the Punjab Assembly against PM’s relief package.