Double standards

LAHRE: The government is more worried about adequate availability of food at affordable rates, while other necessities of life have also gone out of reach of lower middle class forcing them to cut on even subsidised food.

There are issues like the educational expenses of children. Monthly fees have gone up, books and stationery are dearer, and school van charges have doubled. Then parents must also arrange for uniforms and shoes that are also expensive.

Healthcare is also a problem particularly in families with one or two elderly members. They need regular medicines for blood pressure, diabetes, painkillers to relieve rheumatic and related pains, and in some cases for heart ailments, or thyroxin for defective thyroid. Prices of all medicines have doubled. Skipping these medicines makes life miserable and can be fatal.

There is an acute shortage of houses in the country. Those that come to cities for work look for a rented space. Rents have increased in line with the increase in cost of living.

A shabby one room, where the bathroom must be shared with another family fetches rent from Rs8,000-10,000. Lower middle-class families that used to pay a monthly rent of Rs20,000 four years back for a two-room apartment are requested by landlords either to leave or increase the rent by Rs10,000. High utility rates have added salt to the injury. Ballooning petrol rates have increased the essential traveling cost substantially.

These are the realities that most of the families face in Pakistan these days.

The hands of the government are tied. It has done what it could in the budget.

It is left with no resources to even think of doing more.

It has increased the salaries of its employees. It has been a regular feature of the past 15 years. Government servants were either compensated for inflation in every budget or their salaries were increased much more than inflation.

So, they saw a regular rise in incomes. But the private sector employees, labourers and domestic or shop workers were not so lucky. The state does announce an increase in minimum wage from time to time. But this wage is for the lowest level workers.

The government announces a uniform increase in percentage terms for all grades of government employees, but does not do so for private sector workers of all grades. Are the private sector workers immune from inflation unlike the government servants?

Can they be left on the mercy of Seths fearing hurting investors’ confidence? Look at developed economies that are truly operating in an open economy mode.

They have fixed a minimum hourly wage that a private sector employer must give to a worker. And that minimum wage is enough for an 8-hour job to ensure decent living for the worker.

In Pakistan, minimum wage is available to a small percentage of workers. Majority gets much less as the government lacks writ and will to enforce its directive.

The main motive of most of the private sector in Pakistan is to mint money for themselves. Sharing their booty (accumulated through cartels, hoarding, speculation, and tax evasion) is not in their business plan.

Corporate social responsibility is never heard of by them. Providing comfort to their close family is their only responsibility.

The state should come forward and ensure that the incomes of workers increases in line with yearly inflation.

It must realise that incomes of private sector entrepreneurs increase much higher than yearly inflation making them richer every year.