The new jihadi

The problems for the common Pakistani man have not yet peaked. We are at the moment still paying the old electricity rates, and our petrol rates have also not been revised. While the media are carping on, it seems we are powerless to absorb the scale of the increase that will soon be implemented. When the threatened hike hits us the 73 percent living below the poverty line will be joined by the new poor. The numbers are unimaginable. But the dazed hollow look in the eyes is unmistakable. These are the new poor whose only fault was the incompetence of their leadership. How else could they have fallen so fast?

The political governments have still not started work, and the offices are bleak, while the officers are negotiating their positions, and their new rates. Meanwhile work is at a standstill till the tussle for supremacy is resolved between the major partners of the coalition.

While this uncertainty holds up the daily work here, our Northern areas have decided to bring their fight into the open, and challenge the writ of the government.