The government decision as announced by NEPRA on Wednesday to jack up the price of electricity by a whopping Rs 2.04 per unit is unjustified, cruel and criminal. To be put into effect from July this year it will increase poverty, inflation and resentment against the leadership. These raises are unjustified because there is frequent loadshedding and in rural areas for as long as 14 hours a day. Against the very spirit of its manifesto which dictates that the poverty-stricken people would be given relief, the PPP government has taken bread out of the common mans mouth. It must now be asked why has it wasted three years and especially why did it not avail itself the opportunity to procure cheap electricity from Iran? It is a crying shame that it has kept on increasing the rates of electricity during all this time actually to draw a veil over its mismanagement. Tehran is still willing to help us and its offer should not be turned down. Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said the other day that they were duty bound to cooperate with each other. Apart from a plan to open a bank branch in Pakistan, the Iranian government also expressed its readiness to help us in the gas and oil sector. Under the circumstances, there is no justification whatsoever for delaying the purchase of gas and electricity from Iran.