The count of Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani's 100-day programme has begun. The list of his first 100 days' programme was impressive. It started with a resolve to end terrorism and extremism, and to "stabilise prices which would be fair to consumers".
There were many more, including provision of employment, shelter, and literacy, and that the Prime Minister would not tolerate unjust distribution of wealth, and so on.
The people are now feeling disappointed that he has also been slow in appointing a committee to keep check on the rising prices, as he promised in the National Assembly, since the cost of consumer related items has risen and risen, after the budget. Each vendor has been tempted to make a kill by fixing price on his own sweet will.
This makes unfair comparison with prices obtaining on the Election Day. The prices are much higher now--three months after the new administration and the new Prime Minister.
In the last session of National Assembly, a Member rose and asked the Prime Minister to bring down food prices to the same level as promised during election. The Prime Minister denied that he had ever made such a promise.
He could have forgotten that the People's Party did make this promise. PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif has been referring many a time in his speeches to the atta and sugar prices of October 1999.
But now, flour prices have risen to Rs 440 per 20 kg bag in the Punjab, adding further to public disappointment. Besides, commuting costs and taxi charges have gone up after announcement of new oil and gas prices, each fortnight. The people's patience has exhausted and a public backlash may be expected very soon.
"The country is on the verge of a revolution which may take revenge on Islamabad and pull down the fancy houses of the rich, while they wallow in misery in their holes at Rawalpindi," a taxi driver told this scribe a few days ago. He said he was sure that such a thing may happen soon. "Call me a dog if it doesn't happen soon enough," he added.
Of course, there has been justifiable praise for the Prime Minister for quick implementation of five marla plots for shelter to the shelterless, with quick newspaper advertisement. However, the appreciation was mixed with dismay when people noticed the cost of flats as advertised. A poor man speaking with this scribe observed that the Housing Authority, that had advertised the cost of the plots at Rs 13,00,000 or Rs 19,00,000 was out to do business and make money, not to serve the people.
How could a low grade employee be able to get hold of Rs 50,000 to send the application? How could he afford the amount of Rs 1.3 million for the flat? The amount is equal to his 10 years' salary, if he could manage to save. The man's pay is consumed in paying for what he eats. He has to work overtime to pay for his residence, which costs about Rs 5,000 a month for hiring a small hole.
A taxi driver remarked that the country was on the verge of public revolution. "We expect the new government to manage economy competently; the prices should not go up, as they did every day. Even the price of medicine has increased by 25 percent during last three months."
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