Attiya Munawer
The government has been making claims for a long time to control inflation, but in practice nothing seems to be improving. Rising inflation has broken the backs of the people; the purchasing power of the people has completely died. Prices of daily necessities go up at night and during the day. However, the deficit is being calculated in the name of fuel adjustment in electricity bills. Prices of wheat, flour, sugar, vegetables, and pulses have shown the stars to the people during the day. In this situation, the condition of the people has become like who to advocate or who to seek justice from. The people have no forum for grievances, and the public representatives are missing from the scene instead of redressal. In the cabinet meeting, the federal ministers have tried to become innocent by dropping all the rubble on the bureaucracy, which is tantamount to turning a blind eye to the facts. If bureaucracy is the biggest obstacle, then the minister’s job is to remove the obstacles. If there is a proposal from any authority to increase the prices of commodities, petroleum products and electricity, gas, then why don’t the ministers stand up to it and try to stop anti-people measures. In the next elections, the ministers and MPs have to go to the people, not bureaucrats, so instead of escaping from responsibilities and saving the aspect, effective measures for the development and prosperity of the people are the need of the hour. Simply talking and imagining will not satisfy the hunger of the people nor will it be able to curb inflation.
It is clear that the country’s biggest problem at the moment is to control inflation. One of the immediate steps taken by the government was the establishment of the Tiger Force, which will help control inflation,but this force has not been able to overcome the Sustainable Development Authority. In its report, Pakistan has the highest inflation rate in Asia. The report cites India, Bangladesh and Pakistan as having 5.9 per cent inflation in Bangladesh, 7.34 per cent in India and 9 per cent in Pakistan. Even sugar, onions and flour are more expensive in Pakistan than in these countries. The claimants of making Pakistan an Asian Tiger have created the Asian Tigers of inflation and announce not to leave the Mafia. To this, a new addition has been made by the Prime Minister that the mafia and the opposition are pickpockets; they will all go to jail. But it did not say when this will happen.
There is no doubt that the Prime Minister has rightly said that all the pickpockets have come together and are making noise to save themselves from accountability. Along with the national treasury of the country, the people have also been robbed by the pickpockets,but in the identity parade, even though the faces are clear, why do the criminals walk freely? In fact, in every era of power, personal interests and expediencies continue to stand in the way of saving the pickpockets. Even today, only some compulsions stand in the way.There is no harm to the rulers in this, because no one’s pockets are cut, the pockets of the people are definitely cut. If there is a problem in the country or if there is a threat of war or if the business is ruined due to Coronavirus, the pockets of the poor and not the pockets of the rich are cut off. People wonder why flour, sugar, pulses, ghee, milk, medicine, electricity, etc. are so expensive in the country?Just because they are used by the poor, then why not 260% tax is levied on items used by the rich? Because there is no real representative of the poor in the parliament, there, in the guise of representing the poor, the elites have become facilitators of pocket cutters while ensuring the pursuit of their own interests.
Given this situation, it seems that all our rulers who came were really deceivers, who did not want to do anything for the people or there have always been powerful mafias in this country who make the rulers of the time helpless that they can’t give relief to people even if they want to. The same helplessness is seen in Prime Minister Imran Khan. It seems that there is a big and powerful hand active against the people in Pakistan which wants to maintain the division of the deprived and privileged classesand thwarts every effort that is being made to improve the condition of the people. It is the responsibility of the government to curb this corrupt powerful mafia. At this time the government is trying its best to stop inflation, but nothing is getting at a normal rate except in Punjab’s Sahulat Bazaars. Government ministers should take responsibility for their decisions, actions and plans instead of holding the bureaucracy responsible for inflation. Only joint action will be able to overcome this problem to some extent. Failure to control inflation is not the responsibility of any one party; every party is responsible for it. In this country, who is not a pickpocket, everyone is looking for an opportunity, but the government has a responsibility to protect the people from pickpockets and their facilitators, because whoever cuts the pockets of the poor, the government is accountable to the people.
