Women in Pakistan’s Karachi protest against soaring inflation and heavy taxes

Several members of the Jamaat-e-Islami Paksitan on Thursday organised a protest in Karachi, raising their concerns against the soaring inflation and unfair taxes imposed by the government.

These protestors mentioned that the skyrocketing inflation and high taxes have been severely impacting the survival of their families. Additionally, they shared the economic hardship they have been facing. They claim that the government’s policies have caused them immense pain. They also criticized the government’s imposition of heavy taxes on essential commodities and services, exacerbating the financial difficulties faced by the public.

A woman protestor while elaborating on the issue mentioned “The only tragedy in Karachi is heavy taxes and expensive electricity. We are now fed up with these baseless taxes and skyrocketing inflation and are now forced to come out on the streets and raise our voices. Only the government is responsible for our agitation. The bills that used to be around mere hundreds are now totalling thousands of rupees, and that too is only because of inflation and taxes. We have even heard people committing suicide due to poverty. There are households where children lack education and people are not able to get enough food on the table. People are now able to afford either the education of their children, pay for their family’s food, or pay their bills.

Another protestor mentioned, “My only appeal to the government is that if they cannot bring down inflation, then raise the salaries or income of our fathers, brothers and sons, provide them more employment opportunities. Because if a person earns rupees PKR 30,000 per month and then gets a PKR 25,000 bill, from where would he pay? He would be forced to die by suicide because he has three kids at home, who are hungry. There is no gas to cook food, and there is no electricity, but the bills are not coming down. How will we pay? They are killing the public with inflation. People are dying by suicide. They are cruel, they don’t have any right to rule. They are looters, they have looted our country and sold it. We demand that bills should be brought down. Inflation should be brought down. And the unfair taxes in our bills should be cut down”.

Reportedly, Pakistan had previously struck a 7-billion US dollar IMF loan deal last month that includes tough measures such as more taxes on electricity prices. This has aroused concern among poor and middle-class Pakistanis contending with the threat of further inflation and higher taxes. Now, Pakistan yet again finds itself in a multidimensional problem. On one side the country suffers from a severe economic crisis and all international lenders are laying down conditions for increasing taxes which again is causing a problem of survival for the citizens of Pakistan.