It is a self-evident truth that the kinds of problems the people of Pakistan have been encumbered with for quite some time past are unprecedented in their harshness. Already overwhelming, they are growing in intensity with every passing moment. Be it security of life and property, the first and foremost obligation of the state, or be it the basic urge to make both ends meet, the public has been left to itself to manage. The rulers, as if blissfully unaware of the explosive scenario building around them, keep adding to the stock of people’s worries. Witness the unending bloodletting and the activities of the extortionist mafia in Karachi; and the ascending scale of prices of items of daily use, including petroleum products that also means kerosene oil, the common man’s source of cooking his meal, and diesel that makes heavy vehicles run, which is used for transporting him from one place to another and the goods he consumes.
The grimness of the situation created by the leadership’s indifference has forced the Supreme Court to step in and question the justification of not only the linkage of the price of petrol with that of CNG, but also their weekly fluctuations. The outcry against effecting such quick changes that keep people on tenterhooks all the time, goes unheard. The Petroleum Secretary, however, made a most outrageous statement before the court saying that the government took care of the interests of the people. Hearing the case of CNG price at Islamabad on Wednesday, the court admonished the Oil and Gas Regularity Authority (OGRA) accusing it of patronising the licence holders to the detriment of the interests of the consumers. Expressing his anger at its refusal to implement the parliamentary resolution against issuing a revised weekly tariff, a highly perturbed Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry felt that the OGRA had better be closed. He observed that it has caused a massive loss of Rs 83 billion to the state exchequer.
The people’s worries are all encompassing: the ever-present terrorist threat; the lawlessness of which Karachi is the prime example, with its extortionist mafia and killers on the rampage; inflationary spiral in the face of narrowing job market; the water and power shortage owing, in no small measure, to the authorities lack of planning and causing a virtual breakdown of everyday life and economy; corruption that has seeped to the lowest level of the official hierarchy, adding to the miseries of the people.
It is a frightening, indeed, frustrating situation as depicted, again, by the Supreme Court hearing the case about the law and order situation in Karachi. It maintains that if the rangers catch a criminal, the police, in league with the MPs, free him. Arms licences are issued to gain votes. All eyes are set on the outcome of the forthcoming general elections in the hope that they throw up a leadership sensitive to the woes of the public!