The giddy excitement of late last year when the change in financial command had announced some “feel-good measures” seems like ancient history. With the unavoidable finally happening, the government announced a very troubling hike of Rs 35 in the prices of petrol and diesel on Sunday morning. While this televised price revision did put to rest wild speculations about increases as high as Rs 80 that had, in turn, triggered cascading artificial shortages; endless queues outside petrol pumps on top of an overall air of uncertainty, the ominous clouds cannot be ignored. Unbearable inflation is already busy burning holes in the pockets of masses as average prices of wheat (Rs 160 per kilogram), onions (Rs 320 per kilogram) and chicken (Rs 619 per kilogram) are well on their way to pushing the Food Index 3.3 per cent higher in the first month of 2023. Taking a step back reveals how the petrol bomb in close cooperation with the frosty rupee bite is bound to push buttons in every sector. The inability to secure crude oil from Russia on favourable conditions in recent months is among the long, long list of discomforting questions that continue to stare down Islamabad’s face. In return, all we can hear are ramblings, political echoes of pass-the-parcel and some more ramblings. But to the great misfortune of the ruling coalition, words alone–however magical–cannot save them this time. That the government burnt through the precious foreign exchange for a few brownie points without thinking through alternative arrangements would have to be accounted for. Even if Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari manages to score discounted Russian oil, the benefits would not trickle down to the masses anytime soon. At least six months are needed for both sides to cross their t’s, dot their i’s and see through the transportation and refining processes. What is an average Pakistani supposed to do in the meantime? Lock themselves inside and starve to death or spend the entire shoestring budget to feed the vehicles and again, starve to death? *