The holy month of Ramadan Karim is about to arrive amid prohibitive inflation in Islamic Republic of Pakistan.

It is said, food prices have passed a huge challenge to many other countries in various parts of the world as well.

For example, Morocco, an Islamic country in North Africa, is one of such countries, where people have been expressing their serious concerns over rising inflation and price hike.

It is in this country where many people are saying openly that they wouldn’t be able to afford fruits and vegetables, the basic items that people need during Sahar and Iftar, in Ramadan, simply because they wouldn’t be able to buy them.

The situation in Pakistan, one of the largest Islamic countries, is perhaps equally bad, if not worse. The prices of all essential items, including chicken, beef and mutton, wheat flour, cooking oil, have already soared enormously in an environment that is characterized by, among other things, growing joblessness and deepening poverty.

But the faithful will still be fasting in Pakistan and many other economically-hit countries with traditional zeal and religious fervour, although Mirza Ghalib had aptly summerised our situation by saying, “jiss pass roza khol kar khanay ko kuch na ho, roza agar na khaay tau naachar kia karay?”

Its crude translation could be: “what else should one do except skip fasting if he doesn’t have anything to eat in order to break his fast after day-long fasting?”

Hakim Syed (Lahore)

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023