PRIME Minister Imran Khan on Sunday said that “come what may”, the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) government would announce various measures to be taken by the federal cabinet, in its upcoming meeting, to reduce the prices of basic food items. In another tweet, he stated that all the relevant government agencies have begun an “in-depth probe” into the hike in flour and sugar prices, adding that the nation should rest assured that all those responsible will be held accountable and penalized.
It is to be seen what is presented before the cabinet for consideration and what actually is decided to mitigate sufferings of the people who are groaning under unprecedented price-hike. However, the very realization on the part of the Government that the phenomenon of inflation has badly affected people especially vulnerable segments of the society and that steps needed to be taken to provide relief to them is a welcome development. This is because previously the Government seemed to be in a denial mode and described the price-hike artificial and a conspiracy against it. The situation reached to such an alarming level that apart from allies of the ruling party like leaders of PML(Q), even Federal Ministers including Sheikh Rashid Ahmad started openly expressing concern over unending woes of the people vis-à-vis inflation. The deterioration in situation could have been arrested much earlier had the Government adopted a realistic approach to the issue. The Prime Minister has vowed that ‘come what may’, the Government would bring down prices of essential commodities and obviously he was referring to the IMF conditionalities and fiscal position of the Government. The announcement comes as the authorities concerned were having talks with the visiting delegation of IMF on possibilities of new taxes and proposal to increase electricity and gas tariff further, which would surely complicate the problem of price-hike as any increase in taxes and tariff of utilities is ultimately passed on to the people. In this backdrop, it is to be seen how the direction of the Prime Minister to his economic team to bring down the prices of basic food commodities within a fortnight would be translated into reality. However, price-hike has become a question of popularity of the Government and it will have to provide substantive relief to the masses. We have also been hearing about investigations and inquiries into wheat flour and sugar scandals but so far nothing has transpired except mere announcements. Hopefully, Asad Omer’s pledge that the Prime Minister would penalize those responsible ‘this month’ would be honoured as those minting money at the cost of miseries of the common man deserve no mercy irrespective of their political affiliations.
