The issue of letters of credit (LCs) has enormously added to both price hike and inflationary pressures. It has also led to hoarding and black marketing of a slew of items that are related to pharmaceutical and construction sectors in particular by unscrupulous traders. The scarcity of certain pharma inputs has caused a kind of slowdown in manufacturing units.

This situation has been causing a great distress among unwell people who have been finding it extremely difficult to get medicines that they’re required to take from any big or small drug store in Karachi. Either many of such medicines have fully disappeared from shelves of medical stores or these are available on woefully exorbitant rates (read black market).

I have a word of advice for our policymakers: they must explore the possibility of importing medicines or their raw material from India, which has been described widely as “world’s pharmacy”. The trade can be restricted to pharmaceuticals only. India, on the other hand, would be required to show empathy in view of the fact that it’s a purely humanitarian issue.

Nasir Bangash (Peshawar)

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023