Alas! The government is at it again. To their best effort, there will be no middle class left in the country moving forward, there will only be the ruling elite with their luxurious standard of living or the poor and the poorest because the middle class must bear the brunt of the debt which the government so conveniently has piled over decades. And mind you, this government is no exception as they have played a futile game of not hide and seek but rather seek and seek with the innocent citizens, namely the working class that just wants to earn a respectable living! Being born Pakistani is a crime, it seems, and our Pakistani passport is among the worst in the world, thanks to these incompetent politicians who can’t let sanity prevail in the circus where everyone is a ferocious monkey chasing bananas!
It is known that each Pakistani child is born with a debt burden of almost Rs 220,000. Who will pay for this? Yes, we are being made to pay for this debt we did not ask to be burdened under. Prices of commodities are rising every single day and if you so happen to visit a departmental store, the prices are being adjusted on a real-time basis. The price of 1 litre of milk is almost Rs 250 in a country where 31.7 per cent of children face stunted growth, this makes 4 out of 10 children. Let alone be stunting, the government policies are aimed at not letting them grow at all. Seventy-five years on post-independence from the British, we seek independence from the atrocities bestowed upon us by our very own ruling elite.
The recent hyperinflation has been nothing short of our version of the Hiroshima nuclear blast on the nation.
Meanwhile, the recent hyperinflation has been nothing short of our version of the Hiroshima nuclear blast on the nation. When population control methods were not working, the government resorted to frequent price hikes, eventually, most of us will die and the population bubble will shrink rather than burst. There is a lack of water, followed by power shutdowns and gas load shedding and on top of that NEPRA has conducted hearings based on the request of the federal government to impose further charges on electricity bills. One of the hearings was about the imposition of surcharges of up to Rs 3.39 per month until June 2023 so that interest on loans is easily paid off by the government to finance power projects which it feels the need to develop without thinking about the consequences that the end consumer will face. Now interest being not compliant with Shariah in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is another issue altogether.
Another hearing was for the increase of 2.69 rupees as requested by KE for fuel charge adjustment for January this year. Also, one must ensure that the consumption does not exceed 300 units per month and that all appliances are disconnected, forget the recent banter by a political figure about ironing clothes in a frying pan in jail, we wouldn’t have the liberty of using our irons thanks to the increase in electricity bills and frying pans will merely be used to fight our frustrations off! Using above 300 units would mean paying over Rs 6 per unit extra on electricity bills! Perhaps the stone ages were better or rather the government has given us an invisible ticket to drastically regress towards it. Atleast, citizens then wouldn’t have to deal with GST charges like the current rise from 17 per cent to 18 per cent.
Given the choice of starving the nation to death or allowing it the bare minimum to survive, the government is perhaps contemplating the option of sharing tips on mass suicide!
The writer is an energy expert and a policymaker.