Federal Minister for Petroleum Ali Pervez Malik said on Sunday that the government would continue Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif's Sasta petrol scheme for another 10 months, if required, even by allocating Rs400-500 billion from its own resources. Speaking at a ceremony here, the minister said the government would not retreat from providing relief to the people despite difficult economic circumstances and would curtail its own expenditures, if necessary, to finance the scheme.

He said the prime minister had reduced the effective petrol cost by up to Rs100 per litre for motorcyclists and owners of small vehicles, adding that more than six million eligible people had registered their motorcycles and vehicles for the scheme. According to Malik, nearly six million beneficiaries owned motorcycles that were up to 20 years old, indicating that the relief was reaching low-income riders. The minister said the government would not repeat the fuel subsidy approach adopted by the previous government in 2022.

If the relief programme needed to be extended, he added, the government would reduce its own budgetary expenditures to meet the cost. On the political situation, Malik warned the opposition groups against any attempt to march on Islamabad, saying the state would not be intimidated by such moves.