Hike in power rates.

EVER SINCE it came to power, the coalition government has been navigating a difficult path. Given the fragile economy it inherited from the previous government, amid speculations of an imminent default, the coalition, led by the PML-N, has had little to no room to protect people from economic hardships resulting from the painful decisions it has been forced to take to fix the deep economic imbalances in the last three months. Its job is made even more difficult by the IMF whose support and bailout package Pakistan direly needs to avoid defaulting. The crippling increase of Rs7.91 per unit in power prices, which boosts the national average electricity tariff to Rs24.82 per unit from the existing Rs16.91, from July, is just one of several unpopular decisions - that include the reversal of fiscally unsustainable fuel subsidies and the imposition of massive taxes in the budget - the government has taken in order to obtain dollars from the IMF and other multilateral and bilateral creditors. In doing so, the coalition partners have lost much political capital as was manifest in the crushing defeat of the PML-N in the by-elections in its bastion of Punjab.

That the new electricity prices are going to unleash a new round of hyper-inflation, which is projected to average...