ISLAMABAD: As Pakistan prepares to release its budget 2022-23 today, Friday, members of the public in Islamabad, already counting pennies and strained by raging inflation, said they had little hope the document would spell relief for the masses. 

Everyday costs are piling up in Pakistan where people say the soaring prices of eggs and dairy have put even essentials out of reach. Same for the cost of getting around after the government recently increased the price of fuel twice in a week. Electricity tariffs have also been revised up. 

The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has said it expects inflation to remain high after the government removed fuel and power subsidies to secure bailout money from the IMF.

Economists fear low-income and lower-middle-class earners will slide into poverty as a result of current inflation.

 

“Every person had a lot of expectations from the [new] government,” Asif Hussain Shah, a 22-year-old shopkeeper at Islamabad’s Aabpara market, said, saying he had no hope the new budget would provide relief. 

“Traveling from my home to my shop costs me Rs140 per day. What is left for me to earn after that,” he asked.

Bilal Ahmed, 35, a shopkeeper at a clothing outlet in Islamabad’s Jinnah Super Market, lamented rising electricity costs and their effects on the business community. 

 

“No one is answerable for this [rising electricity costs]," Ahmed said. "Our rents have gone up and income is going down.”

 

Bilal Akbar, a 32-year-old who repairs worn-out bags at a roadside stall in Aabpara market, said the coming years would bring more poverty for the masses. 

“All we want is to eat food twice a day,” he said. “They [government] have created such dire circumstances that we are unable to do so.” 

 

Akbar said the education budget needed to be significantly enhanced, calling it the most important sector in the country.

 

“If there is no education, there will be no awareness [among the masses],” Akbar explained. “The way things are going, all we can do is pray to Allah for guidance and direction.”