ISLAMABAD
FPCCI’s Presidential candidate Atif Ikram Sheikh on Monday said the poor are drowning in the tsunami of inflation due to multiple problems.
It has become difficult for people to buy food and get medical treatment as rising fuel prices, electricity bills and house rents are draining their resources, he said. Atif Ikram Sheikh said that the government is focused on floods and the economy while the profiteers are taking full advantage of the situation.
He said that the rupee is also weakening on a daily basis due to which imports are becoming more expensive, while the authorities concerned seem to be helpless in this regard.
He noted that everything which is imported is becoming more expensive as the rupee is losing its value as inflation has already hit a 49-year high due to the higher cost of fuel and electricity. It may rise even higher as the country begins to fix flood-related losses.
Electricity rates for the public have increased by over a hundred percent and electricity bills have become a nightmare for millions of people and the recent measures are pushing millions of people below the poverty line.
Sheikh noted that the number of jobless people may rise by an additional 3 million by June 2023 because of the floods and the post-flood disruptions in food supply chains will aggravate shortages of cereals, meat and milk due to damaged crops and lost livestock, keeping food inflation high hitting the masses badly.
He said that the idea of coexistence is no longer applicable in the country’s politics and politics of conflict is being prioritized over everything else, creating new and serious challenges for the struggling economy.
