Unfair fare
The acute shortage of petroleum products, especially in the capital, has thrown normal life out of gear for the past few weeks. Fuel shortage has not only affected public transportation but has equally crippled other aspects of public life. And as always, it is the common people who have been forced to bear the brunt of the government’s inability to ensure the supply of daily necessaries. As a result, the market is not only short-supplied with commodities of daily consumption, but their costs have soared beyond what common consumers can afford. Moreover, as fewer public vehicles are plying in the capital, most people, who have to rely on public transportation, are being charged unfairly.
Still worse, ambulance services have stopped operating in most of the hospitals and nursing homes, thus depriving the patients of the vital health services. If anyone is to blame and should therefore take full responsibility for this miserable state of affairs, it is none except the government. In a country where a majority of the people barely manage to scrape a living, an unnatural if not deliberate hike in the cost of the daily necessaries can only invite disaster for the government as well as the public. The government should seriously take stock of the situation and immediately resume the supply of essential commodities. It should also be ready to fight odds that are standing in the way of efforts to make the ongoing peace process a success.