That the then finance minister Shaukat Tarin was regularly monitoring the prices of essential kitchen items on a regular basis is a fact. He had been getting briefings from the concerned government officials on Sensitive Price Index (SPI) on regular basis. His focus on the prices and availability of essential commodities was reflecting government’s praiseworthy approach to the challenge of price hike. Having said that, I would request the incumbent finance minister Miftah Ismail to pay equal, if not more, attention to the issues facing the common man in particular.

He too should start getting briefings on prices and availability of items such as tomato, potato, chicken farm, sugar and wheat flour on a regular basis in order to obtain a bigger picture of economic situation in the country. That this government comprises highly talented people is a fact. But their skills must translate into some meaningful relief for the people. Not only are they required to take steps aimed at containing inflation, they must also end the menace of power outages as early as possible.

Zahid Husain (Lahore)

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022