The opposition is pointing an accusing finger at the PTI government for an unending rise in the prices of the commodities of daily use. Public opinion surveys by mainstream media reveal widespread public resentment over the hyper-inflationary trend. Even trade and industry leaders have rejected the hike in petroleum prices, maintaining that it would not only hit the country’s economic performance, but also multiply the difficulties of the masses. The latest to join the condemnations is the legal community. Maintaining that the increase in the prices of essential items had broken the common man’s back, the Pakistan Bar Council has threatened to launch a countrywide protest if the government failed to control inflation.
The government calls rising prices a global phenomenon, with a cynical Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry asking “Are we living in another planet?”
The government cannot exonerate itself of the responsibility for rising prices by calling the hike a global phenomenon. The govt took faulty decisions that led to the export of sugar while it failed to stop the smuggling of wheat. The fall of the rupee which is also responsible for costlier imports has been caused among other things by the government’s import policy. During the first half of the current fiscal year there was a 196 percent hike in imports of completely built-up (CBU) cars to $94 million. Import of luxury goods was used to raise more revenues but was bound to negatively impact the dollar-rupee parity. Bad governance expressing itself in unending transfers and posting of bureaucrats also played a role in failure to check the artificial rise in prices through hoarding and smuggling
The issue of rising prices has been high on the anti-government agenda of the opposition parties. PML Vice-President Maryam Nawaz made it the central theme of her address at the Faisalabad rally. The PDM has decided to launch a countrywide movement against the PTI government for its failure to control prices. While people are really fed up with the situation, one wonders if they would be immediately drawn to the PDM’s protests for many are disenchanted by the divisions within the opposition. The PPP and ANP are out of the opposition alliance. Even more damaging is the division within the PML(N). Unless the opposition is united, it is unlikely to turn into a formidable force.
