Pakistani citizens are taking their financial woes online and criticizing the country’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) top leader Maryam Nawaz for doing nothing for the relief of the masses, media reports said.
This comes as Pakistan is grappling with a worse economic crisis and the deepening political turmoil is spawning doubts about the government’s ability to make tough decisions going forward and tackle the longstanding structural issues of the economy responsible for the recurring balance-of-payments crisis.
A video is going viral in Pakistan where a Karachi woman could be seen slamming the government after skyrocketing inflation. The woman asks the government whether she should end her children’s lives by stopping to feed them, ARY News reported on Monday.
The woman, identified as Rabia from Karachi, could be seen crying and complaining about the financial problems she was facing after the rise in inflation. In a viral video posted on Twitter, she criticised Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and PML-N top leader Maryam Nawaz for doing nothing for the relief of the masses.
She said that the rulers should tell her how to manage her expenses after rising the prices of essential commodities.
“What should I do, paying house rent, hefty electricity bills, purchase milk and medicines for my kids, feed my children or should I kill them?” Rabia said that she is the mother of two and one of these kids is having fits while the medicine prices for his treatment went high during the last four months.
“Can I avoid purchasing medicines for my child?” “The government has almost killed the poor people. Are you really afraid of being questioned by Allah Almighty or not?” Meanwhile, Pakistan Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif’s coalition government, which took over in April 2022, is grappling with multiple political and economic crises.
Its current account deficit has surged to USD 17.4 billion or 4.6 per cent the size of the economy during the last fiscal year on the rising trade deficit.
A surging current account deficit amid depleting dollar inflows from multilateral and bilateral lenders, as well as shrinking foreign investment have brought the foreign exchange reserves and rupee under enormous pressure over the last several months.
It has stoked rapid inflation, forced the State Bank to boost borrowing costs to a multiyear high and eroded investor confidence in the economy.
