This government has done everything in its power to give people the impression that prices are high because of artificial manipulation of supply chains and also promised time and again that such trends would never be tolerated again. Yet facts on the ground continue to tell a very different story as despite dipping a bit around January 2021 inflation as measured by Consumer Price Inflation (CPI) returned to double digits in April 2021 and clocked in at a shocking 11.1 percent. It had been brought down to 5.7pc in January, then jumped to 9.1pc in March and then rose two percent in just one month to break through the psychological 10pc barrier. That this rise is driven by high food prices in urban and rural areas only makes the problem much worse for the common man, especially vulnerable groups at the bottom of the food chain who are now finding it difficult to even afford their daily food. Even those with very short memories will remember that the government held high inflation responsible for Hafeez Sheikh’s ouster from the finance ministry. And only days later the prime minister himself said that the success of this government in what remains of this term will be judged on the basis of its ability to control prices. Yet barely a few days after the start of Ramazan prices in local markets were above rates mandated by district administrations in almost all parts of the country, even though the traditional price hike that comes with the holy month was no surprise and could have been handled in a much better way. It says a lot the food prices were higher 15.7 percent year-on-year in April this year according to figures provided by the Federal Bureau of Statistics (FBS). Since this is also the time that the third wave of the pandemic is wreaking havoc across the world, this region and this country being no exception, it is also the time when people are losing jobs and savings, which makes the price hike a lot more painful than it would have been in ordinary times. This, of course, only makes the government that much more responsible for the poor state of affairs. It has now held far too many meetings to address this problem and made far too many claims that inflation would soon be a thing of the past. Yet nothing has worked so far. It must, for its own sake as much as for the people, now deliver results that make the people’s food affordable and lives tolerable once again. Nothing less will do the job. *