The February election was a ray of hope for millions of Pakistanis who were disillusioned by the Musharraf regime. It was expected that the democratic government would bring relief to the poor, control the rising prices, reduce loadshedding, contain hoarding, increase our social and economic stability and, hence, bring progress and development to Pakistan, but everything proved otherwise.
  On the very day that Prime Minister Gilani received a vote of confidence, he announced an increase in the wheat price and this was followed by a significant rise in the prices of all commodities. The rupee has fallen drastically in comparison to the dollar and the country’ exports have become less competitive. The stock market has a bearish trend and stocks are falling every day. People are withdrawing their investments from Pakistan but there is no regulation to control this fall in the stock market.
  The two leading figures of the new government -- Nawaz Sharif and Asif Zardari -- who had repeatedly condemned the military operations in the Frontier and vowed to stop them have surrendered their national sovereignty in the face of American pressure and have begun a large-scale operation.
  They have given a free hand to American agencies to operate in Pakistan. Such serious backtracking by the government has placed a question mark in the people’s mind over the credibility of future promises.
  The government is increasing the oil prices repeatedly even though 70 per cent of the demand is met through local production and of the 30 per cent imported; most of the oil is brought from Saudi Arabia at subsidised rates. The prices of natural gas and electricity have increased for no obvious reason.
  The budget, which was being termed by the political elite as ‘awam dost budget’ presented an entirely regressive tax system with the poor people paying more tax.