Majority of 150 million plus people will keenly watch the 2006-07 budget presentation in the National Assembly on Monday, desperately looking for the oft-repeated 'relief', at least in essential kitchen items prices.
During the past four days, apart from numerous earlier occasions, President General Pervez Musharraf has asked Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz for measures to bring down the prices, who, in return, directed chief ministers to do the needful. The President on Friday once again called for strict action against hoarders and profiteers.
The consumer is confused, seeing no impact of the measures taken so far to check the prices surge, that whether or not the government's strategy in the upcoming budget would give him enough relief, enabling him to afford to buy potato, onion, garlic, pulses, cooking oil and other kitchen items!
Prime Minister Aziz has often attributed the phenomenon to imbalance in supply and demand. If it really is so, who would strike the much-required balance? ..the common man on the street or the government?
The question is: 'Who will bell the cat?' Apparently, the government can not put in place a viable mechanism at the provincial and district levels to check the increase in prices. In many cases, rates went up by 50 percent to 100 percent: glaring examples are of sugar, mutton, beef, and cement. The incumbent government is confronted with perhaps the worst ever price spiral, and it has so far not been able to arrest the trend.
Political pundits believe that if status quo prevailed, and the elections held free, fair and transparent, as being assured by the rulers, the winning chances of General Musharraf-led Pakistan Muslim League are not very bright.
Contrary to the present government, that claims to have achieved economic turnaround, previous governments had inspectors to monitor prices, and price control committees, too, used to keep an eye on day to day fluctuations.
It goes without saying that opposition parties can contribute by asking (their supporter) traders, businessmen and shopkeepers to keep profit at a reasonable level. The same strategy they could have adopted by convincing the sugar mill owners, many of them sitting in the Parliament, to off-load stocks to bring down its price. But, unfortunately, they did not fulfil their responsibility.
In other South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation (Saarc) member countries, POL products price increase had an impact on daily use commodities, but the bite was not as pinching as is being felt in Pakistan.
Needless to say, if the government and political parties took the challenge collectively, they could be handy in coping with the situation. But they all have their priorities!
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