People say the murder of Benazir Bhutto is the murder of democracy, liberalism, modernism and moderation. But in real terms, it has shaken the whole system, pushing the country into anarchy, mayhem and rebellion.
Soon after her assassination, there was complete unrest everywhere. At first, riots broke out almost all over the country when the PPP workers were showing their rage over the demise of their beloved leader. Organized gangs of hardened criminal got busy looting their countrymen by attacking the markets and bazaars. Major losses were borne by the government property during the riots, but the common person also suffered a lot in the shape of loss of property and lives as well.
Everyone thought it would be over in a few days. True, the first phase was over, but a new crisis swiftly followed. The sky high price of wheat flour and scarcity of basic necessities like gas, oil and electricity have added to the miseries of the common man who has already suffered a lot during the three days crisis in the country after Benazir’s assassination when there was no traffic on roads, shops were closed and hospitals were without doctors.
“Yes, with her assassination we have lost democracy, liberalism, modernism and moderation, but with all that we the mighty Muslim nation has also lost our believes. We have created shortage of oil, gas and flour and electricity in the market, saying that many reasons are behind for such a crisis. Even, a lay man can comment that all such emergencies are created by the government itself to divert the attention of the common man away from the tragedy of Benazir Bhutto,” said Maulana Fazlur Rehman, Chief of Jamiat Ulam-i-Islam. He also accused the government of creating wheat and power crisis in the county just to divert people’s attention from the real issues.
During the last few days, people all over the country have been facing the dearth of gas, oil and electricity with sky high price of flour. An unprecedented load shedding is observed in all the country from seven to fifteen hours. With all that, natural gas, which is a major source of heating these days, also disappeared. The prices of flour reached Rs.40 per kilogram. Motorists have to get into long queues for filling their tanks as most of the filling stations in the city are closed because of the electric and gas load shedding. Even the price of an ordinary candle has surged from Rs5 to Rs15 per candle.
“We have no flour, no oil, no gas and no water. What a country we are living in. If you are a poor person, you will be poorer with days to come and if you are a wealthy person, you will be more wealthy and healthy with each passing day. That is the profile of present Pakistan,” said a sub-editor of a national daily.
He said had been into journalism for last nine years, but the saddening photo captions and news over the last few days were so depressing that they  turned the environment of the whole office gloomy. “Everyone on the news desk has lost his temper. We have to spare most of our time for searching CNG at gas pumps, flour at utility stores and asking WAPDA authorities for schedule of load shedding,” he said.
The NWFP Secretary Food, Hifzur Rehman, told mediapersons last week that the current flour crisis in the province was the result of tragic killing of Benazir Bhutto, long Eid-ul-Azha vacations and extensive load-shedding of electricity. He said the NWFP government was providing 3000 tons wheat daily on subsidized rates to 30 flour mills in the province to provide the commodity at reasonable rates to the people. But, he admitted, there was a faulty monitoring system and the subsidized wheat was not reaching deserving people. In fact, it goes to the godown of stockers.
People have also complained of the low standard of flour available at the fair price shop, saying its quality was so poor that it was difficult to prepare bread.
The same is the complaint of motorists that CNG pressure at gas stations is so low that they have to pay more money against the less quantity of gas. The owners are getting more profits, while customers are getting less gas against their payments.
The situation vis-à-vis electricity is also depressing. The federal government has claimed that all such crises would be over in the current week. Let’s hope for the best.