Everything is making merry on its way to becoming unbelievably expensive as the weekly inflation has crossed the dreaded 40-per cent mark for the first time in over five months. The prices of onions rising by 372 per cent; cigarettes, 164.7 per cent; gas, 108.38 per cent; chicken, 85.7 per cent and diesel, 81.36 per cent are back to dangling yet again like the proverbial Damoclean Sword over the heads of thousands, if not millions, of families forced to choose between food in their bellies or clothes on their backs. The small-time compromises began a long while ago with many foregoing avoidable luxuries or resorting to multiple jobs in a bid to survive the day. And while the coalition government may try its best to hide behind the shadows of the stringent conditions put forward by the IMF, it cannot sweep its own comedy of errors behind the rug. The fragile situation on the budgeting front continues to haunt us despite lofty claims to prioritise the well-being of the masses in these testing times. It is high time that Finance Minister Ishaq Dar takes a deep look within and acknowledges the damage incurred to the treasure so that the administration can finally do something about the crippling cost crunch. Tragically consumed by doomsday predictions and the infamous burial of heads in the sand, the policymakers have miserably failed in the past year to come up with a magical buzzword. May it be incentivising manufacturing or development in human capital, nothing has been achieved so far. Isn’t it the most brazen display of irony that those doling us out lifelines to avert the horrendous d-word are repeatedly showing us a blueprint to lasting success: taxing the rich and saving the poor? Shouldn’t Islamabad realise that enough has been enough and the unfortunate millions walking on the streets cannot be expected to keep up with their whims? The ball has been gathering dust in the powerful court for far too long. *