Pak: Everyday essentials out of reach for people amid rising inflation

Islamabad [Pakistan], April 19 : As Pakistan continues to grapple with economic challenges due to a shortage of foreign exchange reserves, citizens find it tough to buy everyday essentials like flour, oil and gas.

Despite daily necessities such as gas, electricity, petrol and flour getting more and more out of reach or prohibitively expensive for the average person to acquire, the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) government is hardly paying heed to the plight of the people, Pakistan's vernacular media reported.

The inflation in the country is going through the roof, quite literally, with price rise is coming in the way of Eid celebrations as well.

According to Pakistan's vernacular media, the purchasing power of people has reached "rock-bottom" not allowing them to do any Eid shopping and that is the reason that markets are wearing deserted looks these days. Not only this, the government has recently hiked petrol prices.

Amid escalating economic hardships, people are literally at pains to bear the brunt of frequent hikes in petrol and power tariffs and inflation on the whole, Pakistan vernacular media reported. With Eid-ul-Fitr approaching, concerns have been expressed over increasing inflation in the country.

The Express Tribune recently reported that burgeoning inflation and a deepening cost-of-living crisis have left millions of people across Pakistan struggling to put food on their tables. In a bid to lift some burden off low-income families during Ramzan, provincial governments announced plans to distribute flour bags.

However, unorgsed distributions in parts of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa resulted in stampedes.

A man was killed in Charsadda, and several others were injured in Swabi and Kohat. Another man in Bannu died after the boundary wall of a flour mill collapsed ahead of flour distribution. In the Hasilpur Tehsil of southern Punjab, at least five women were injured in a stampede at a free flour distribution point.