ONE must acknowledge that the government acted promptly in response to the breakout of hostilities on Feb 28 between the US and Israel on the one hand and Iran on the other. Immediately after the beginning of the coordinated bombing on targets in Iran, Tehran almost immediately — in fact on the very next day —responded by launching its missiles and drones in the direction of Israel and neighbouring Arab Gulf states hosting US military facilities.

Although the Arab states did not retaliate and confined their actions to defensive measures, there was no doubt left that the disruption of oil supply from these states would create a huge energy crisis around the globe, which would disproportionately hurt developing countries like Pakistan that relied on imported energy.

As world oil prices began to soar, the government wasted no time in increasing petrol and diesel prices by the unprecedentedly huge margin of Rs55 per litre on March 6 — despite the fact that government ministers had claimed a day earlier that they had sufficient fuel stocks for a month, which had been purchased at the old price. As anticipated, the price hike — popularly termed as the ‘petrol bomb’ even by serious newspapers like this one — led to an immediate and universal public backlash. The common theme in the harsh criticism by diverse segments of the population and media outlets was the lavish lifestyle of the government and its top officials. They asserted that the government routinely passes on the increase in petrol prices to the common people and expects them to make sacrifices but........

© Dawn