The Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) revised fuel prices again this week. As history serves as an indicator, the nation reacted similarly to how it did the previous month. After rumours of a massive hike spread, city roads were clogged with long queues by evening, and stations ran out of fuel by midnight. Consequently, the Pakistani nation, in an attempt to save 42 million rupees, spent nearly 400 million rupees.

The actual increase was six rupees, whereas the rumour was a 100-rupee-per-litre jump. For a 35-litre tank, the total saving per vehicle was approximately 210 rupees, yet thousands of citizens nationwide endured a wait of two to three hours to get it. A university teacher, for instance, earns roughly 1,200 rupees an hour and expends 3,000 rupees’ worth of his time to safeguard 210. Can anyone imagine that he would give a stranger 2,790 rupees to receive 210 in return? Yet, he did it willingly and drove home believing he had won.

He was not alone. They consisted of car owners, bank managers, medical professionals, shop owners, and officials — people with degrees and salaries whose time is not Pakistan’s cheapest resource. Still, we queued as if it were. This is the perfect example of time economy, and we are not very good at it. We always treat time as a free resource because the state has conditioned us to do so.

When power goes out for six hours, we mostly remain patient. When a file sits on a desk for three weeks, we wait. When a convoy blocks the road, we pause. We have been trained to think........

© The Friday Times