Brace your wallets, Ramazan is coming
By Shakir Lakhani Published: May 27, 2017
Karachi residents buy
dates from a shop at a market in Karachi on the eve of Ramazan. PHOTO: AFP
I first heard the story
many years ago, and every year I hear it at least once. Most Pakistanis
are probably familiar with it, but it bears repeating, for those who’ve never
heard it.
It goes like this:
In the early years of Islam, a preacher from a
town sent his assistant to tell the people of a distant village in the mountains
about Ramazan. He told them how they would have
to get up before daybreak, eat food and drink water, then go without
water and food until sunset, beginning with the appearance of the new moon and
ending with the appearance of the next new moon.
“But why should we have to do it?” they asked.
“Because
Ramazan is coming,” the assistant replied.
Now, it so happened that no one in the village
had ever seen a camel, so when a man appeared the next day riding a camel, they
thought the camel was Ramazan. They immediately slaughtered it, and did not
fast that year, until the preacher heard about it and lost his temper.
Of
course, this does not explain why prices rise so sharply a couple of weeks before
the holy month and continue rising during Ramazan (even though there
is no shortage of edibles and other items).
This year, 15 days before
Ramazan, the price of onions rose by Rs5 per kilogram.
“Ramazan
is coming,” said the vendor, as if that was an adequate explanation.
When I pointed out that the
holy month was still two weeks away, he shrugged and said,
“As it
comes nearer, prices will go up more.”
He was right.
Yesterday, three days before
the month of fasting, onion and potato prices were Rs15 higher per kilogram
than last week, while bananas were selling for Rs120 per dozen, compared to
Rs80 just two days back. Again, when I protested, the answer was,
“Don’t
you know? Ramazan is coming!”
In
most other countries, around Christmas for instance, food prices stay the same,
while prices of shoes and clothes actually go down, but in Pakistan, for some
reason, prices go through the roof a few days before and during Ramazan.
Let’s take a closer look at the
supply and demand excuse given by most retailers.
Does
the population of the country suddenly shoot up in the
months before Ramazan? There is no evidence for this. Okay, we know that most
employed people in the country are paid an extra month’s salary during the holy
month. Since the minimum salary is Rs13,000, most men are in a
constant struggle to survive, and so cannot even think of buying sugar or
fruits in the 11 months before Ramazan. This is true particularly for those
with six or more children; and such people form the majority and the poorest
section of society. But will the extra money make a worker want to buy more
fruits and vegetables, or sugar, or even clothes?
I asked my driver,
“How
will you spend the extra Rs15,000 you’ll get this month?”
“I’ll
pay off a loan I took from my neighbour for repairs to my house,” he said.
Everyone I asked – the office
peon, the security guard and others – said they would spend the extra money to
pay off their debts, since they have to borrow money to survive, usually with a
high rate of interest. None of them said they would buy more eatables, clothes
or shoes for themselves or their families.
It
should be noted that prices start escalating two weeks before Ramazan when people have not even started fasting
yet. So obviously, the reason is not a sudden spurt in demand, but something
else is at work here.
I
think it’s the mind-set of our people, who have come to believe that prices
should automatically shoot up in the holy month. Everyone, therefore, expects
to be paid more, from truck drivers to labourers, to even telephone linemen and
electric utility employees. As I write this, all the telephones in my office
are dead, and next week, the lineman will turn up and look at me expectantly,
and I’ll have to pay him Rs500 for doing something he is being paid for (I also
strongly suspect that he has deliberately disconnected all my phones just to
get bakhsheeh (tip).
And if I refuse to pay him, he will say,
“Sir,
it’s Ramazan!”
I
know people will find it hard to believe, but there was a time when government officials used to go around the
city, arresting or penalising those who would charge more for eatables during
the holy month. A couple of years ago, I was in a shop in Clifton when a
government official asked the owner why he was selling sugar for Rs10 more per
kilogram as compared to the price issued by the government (which at that time
was Rs50 per kilogram). He answered,
“I get
it for Rs55, my profit is Rs5, if you can get it delivered to me for Rs45, I’ll
sell it for Rs50”.
He was fined Rs5,000 but that
was the last time it happened. I do wish the authorities would continue doing
it, not only during Ramazan, but throughout the year.
Otherwise,
I request the prime minister and national assembly members to make it a law, not allowing prices to shoot up immediately before
and during the holy month of Ramazan. But whether they do it or not, it seems
that nothing will change and the looters will go on plundering, and we the
common people will go on suffering.
Shakir Lakhani
Engineer, former visiting lecturer at NED Engineering College, industrialist, associated with petroleum/chemical industries for many years. Loves writing, and (in the opinion of most of those who know him), mentally unbalanced. He tweets @shakirlakhani (twitter.com/shakirlakhani)
http://blogs.tribune.com.pk/story/50397/brace-your-wallets-ramazan-is-coming/
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