The favourite shopping destination of Lahore’s common folks seems to have turned ‘elitist’ given the skyrocketing prices of commodities, including Covid-19 face masks….reports Asian Lite News
Inflation seems to have taken its toll on the ‘Landa Bazaar or the thrift market of Lahore.
The favourite shopping destination of Lahore’s common folks seems to have turned ‘elitist’ given the skyrocketing prices of commodities, including Covid-19 face masks. The residents are evidently not happy and blame the Pakistani government for this.
“As other shops are out of our reach, we poor folks shop here. We came here thinking that we would be able to buy some things cheap. Instead, we found that things costing Rs 100 are being sold for Rs 400 to rs 500,” rued a local shopper.
“People come here thinking that they would be able to buy things cheap, but here too everything is so costly. Where should a common man go? The government is run by Imran Khan. People said a change would come. What kind of change is this,” asked another resident.
Meanwhile, shopkeepers attribute the scenario to the high costs of goods purchased from the suppliers.
“We feel so helpless when people complain about inflation. It is not our fault. We are only earning our daily wages from the sales. Still, we make efforts to charge only the just price from our customers, but we have to earn our livelihood too,” said a shopkeeper.
Farmers protest
The farmers’ wing of Pakistan’s Islamist political party Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) held a protest against the Imran Khan government over increasing prices of fertilizers, the country’s vernacular media reported.
The fertilizers have become costlier and unavailable and if the situation does not change, there will be a decline in the production of the crops, said Chaudhary Shaukat, regional president of Kisan Board Pakistan (KBP), a body representing smallholder farmers.
Complaining that the selling price of the crops is lower than the expenses, the protesters demanded exemption on general sales tax on seeds and agricultural tools.
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government has broken all the records of tyranny and injustice, the vernacular media reported JI chief Siraj-ul Haq as saying.
Haq further said that all departments and sectors are crumbling due to the wrong policies of the government that has become a slave of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
The protesting farmers and laborers will surround the Punjab assembly if their demands are not fulfilled, he added.
The agitators also demanded immediate release of arrested farmers, Pakistan’s vernacular media reported.
Notably, as many as 200 farmers were arrested in Lahore as they staged a sit-in protest against an exorbitant hike in petroleum prices, unavailability of fertilizer, and higher prices of compost and demanded the reversal of the government decisions, Dawn newspaper reported.
