Abdullah, who does not have a son and has several daughters and a widow in his home, works as a daily wager at a tandoor in the city and earns a small amount to provide for his family, living in a rented house in Peshawar city.
“I can’t even afford petrol for a motorcycle; I don’t know how people can afford it for big vehicles, and it is unfortunate that ministers, lawmakers as well as the civil, police, and military officials are given free petrol on quotas, while the public, private companies’ workers and even some government employees like teachers don’t get any free petrol,” he questioned.
An employee of a private security company, Shah Jehan, while discussing the ongoing price spiral in the country said that their company often delays salaries to them while the pay raise is very rare in the private security companies.
“I get Rs10,000 salary a month. If I divide this salary by 30 days, I can’t even purchase 1kg ghee in my one-day wage,” he said. He also questioned why the authorities could not ensure implementation of the recent decision on Rs24000 as minimum wage for all workers in the country.
The taxicab drivers and others depending on petrol and diesel for their jobs are in particular perturbed over the ongoing hike in the POL prices. Discussing the situation, a taxicab driver Ameer Khan said that on the one hand the prices of petrol had increased up to almost Rs234 per litre but when they charge the customers a fare in proportion to the hike in fuel prices, many argue and refuse to hire their cabs. The transporters in areas have also announced protests against the hiking prices of POL in the country.
Many call for ending free fuel quota for govt officials amid high inflation rate
A grocery store owner, Javed Khan, discussing the ongoing price hike in the country said that while he used to have customers taking commodities on loans from his store in the past too, the ongoing price hike has increased such customers.
“The numbers of such customers at my store has increased and now more customers are taking commodities and daily use items from us and assure to pay us the amount once they get salaries or arrange the money at some point in the days to come. I even know many people who would never ask for favour in the form of loaned items because of their self-esteem, but the ongoing price spiral has caused many to shun that self-esteem and now they have no option but to take commodities on loans although they pay us when they arrange money,” he added.
It merits a mention here that many netizens and social media users have demanded the government to finish the petrol/diesel quota and free petrol for the civilian, police and military officials as the country is already facing a crisis.