Medicines beyond reach, falling ill is death sentence, say poor in bankrupt Pakistan

Islamabad: Falling ill is almost a death sentence for the poor in Pakistan now. Costs of medicines, food and other essentials, clothes, travelling have gone out of reach for Pakistanis who are struggling for survival with inflation in the south Asian nation breaking its own record.

Short-term inflation, measured by Sensitive Price Index, hit 41.07 per cent last week. Also, the Consumer Price Index for the month of February shot up to 31.50 per cent since June 1975.

All these, accompanied by rising energy prices and taxes to meet the conditions for the bailout package from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have led to a sharp decline in the Pakistani rupee and making life of people miserable.

Medicine prices hit the roof

“Falling ill, especially to any life-threatening ailment, is almost a death sentence for a poor now,” a report by Dawn quoted Niaz Ahmed, a loom worker from Faisalabad, as saying.

Medicine prices have sky-rocketed much before the current surge in inflation began, making it out of reach for the middle and low income group people. Dollar-rupee parity, record inflation and lack of control on prices have risen price of normal medicines out of middle-income group’s reach.

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Poor in Pakistan say that it has been “impossible” for them to buy specialised and life-saving medicines. “If any of us fall ill, only providence can save us,” Ahmed said.

Kitchens run dry

Food inflation has forced poor, which now are overwhelming majority, to sleep empty stomach.

Ahmed warned that people in Pakistan are already at a sub-human level and the coming days would be difficult for almost everyone.

“If food expenses eat up 50 per cent of one’s income, one can imagine what kind of cost-cutting is required to survive,” the report quoted Muhammad Khan – a cart pusher on Brandreth Road, an industrial market in Lahore – saying.

Sharing his ordeal, Khan, who has five other members in his family, said they need at least 20 breads (chapattis) twice a day which currently cost a whopping PKR600 (at a rate of PKR15 each).

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Prices of pulses range between PKR300 to PKR450 per kilogram across Pakistan. “Add other essentials (ghee, salt, chillies, coriander) and basic family meals cost me more than PKR1,000 a day and I cannot make that kind of money every day given my age and health. Do I have a margin of cost-cutting? I am in perennial debt to meet two meals a day requirement; all the rest is now a luxury for us,” teary-eyed Khan said.

‘Inflation does not treat all of us equally’

Inflation in Pakistan does not treat all equally, says Jameel Ahmad, a labourer from Quetta.

“In Lahore, a roti costs PKR15 each. In my native town, its price is PKR30. My family purchases it daily at that price. The weight of this inflation depends on location as well,” Jameel Ahmad.

He further said a 20 kilogram of flour bag costs around PKR1,750 in Lahore, whereas it is double the price in almost across Balochistan. “It used to cost me PKR3,500 going to my home town till a fortnight ago, now it is PKR4,000; I need PKR8,000 to travel to Quetta and back. It is not a case of balancing between different expenditures now, but the matter of basic survival and struggle is reduced to two meals a day. All of the rest is prohibited,” Jameel Ahmad said.

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Over the weekend, Pakistan’s all-weather fiend China again extended aid to rescue the bankrupt neighbour from its deep economic crisis. Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) has approved the rollover of $1.3 billion facilities to the cash-strapped country.

Pakistan has been reeling under acute economic crisis for long due to political instability, corruption and mismanagement of the financial system. Pakistan’s external debt and liabilities are to the tune of $130 billion, which is 95 per cent of its GDP.

Recently, IMF Managing Director, Kristalina Georgieva, said Pakistan had been asked by the global lender “to take steps to be able to function as a country” and not get into a dangerous place where it needs debt restructuring.

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