High prices and low earnings vex people

The price of everything ranging from food to transportation to house rent has soared disturbingly over the last three months. The drift has been pretty constant since then. In spite of a raise in the salaries of certain sectors, it has been harder for both fixed and non-fixed income earners to make ends meet.

Pindiites are taken aback by the price of daily essentials. The price of food and non-food items has shot up in a distressing way. "I have made big compromises in the living standard of my family to bear the price hike of food and transport. Nevertheless I am finding it more and tougher to pay for the food we used to have before,” says Aqeel Zaidi, a salesman of a marketing company.

“In order to be able to send my daughter and son to a school and at the same time for having decent food on the table, I am now thinking about taking up a part-time job, says Gulzar Hussain, a school teacher.

Jaffar Ali, a daily wager, is finding it hard, even unworkable to make ends meet. “I live in a slum along the railway track in Loi Bher Railway Scheme with my wife, a domestic help, and dread that I might fail to pay the increased rent, following which my family may be evicted anytime.”

“Unlike many others in the city our family has more earning members at the moment. But our standard of living has not improved in any meaningful sense as the family earnings are still lagging far behind the growth rate of prices of daily essentials,” says Arif Hasan, a government employees.

Wholesalers and retailers provide different reasons to give explanation for the rise of food prices, and at times contradictory ones. “The cost of transportation of goods is at the present higher than before in the past,” says Alamdar Hussain, a wholesaler who deals in vegetables in Sabzi Mandi. “The mounting labour costs are also to a degree responsible for the price hike,” he adds.

The retailers, in turn, blame it on the wholesalers. “Customers think that we make huge profit from the trade and keep bargaining. They fail to see that we are as vulnerable to wholesalers' prices as they are,” says Ziarat Ali, who sells fruits and vegetables near Airport Housing Society rail crossing. He also claims that he makes a nominal profit and has no control over the price of the products he sells. There are man-made reasons as well for the increasing prices of daily essentials i.e. hoarders and black-marketers The middlemen are also greatly responsible for raising the price of everything,” says Farmeen Ali , a housewife.