This letter is with reference to the column A sugary mess. I think the author makes a very good point that it is the nameless, faceless common man who is going to suffer the most due to the economic mess that the government has created. The unprecedented price hike in food items is going to hit the middle classes and lower classes really hard. The inequity of the current governments proposed reforms infuriates me to no end as they are serving to widen the rich-poor gap by leaps and bounds. Food and basic utilities prices are the prices that affect everybody unlike the prices of luxury items which do not affect anybody because the rich are becoming obscenely rich in this country and inflation is a meaningless term to them.
The burden of the ongoing recession and the repercussions of the recent floods have disproportionately (almost exclusively) borne by the suffering classes. The rich people in this country are ready to live off Pakistans resources but not ready to give back even a little that they have taken. Sherry Rehman is right in saying that only the rich should be taxed. After all they should suffer the consequences of the mess that they have an implicit hand in creating. Even if not, wealth is not just a privilege but a responsibility and it is time that the elites of this country owned up to that.
ANUM ASIF
Lahore
