Situationer: Prices go through the roof, crushing salaried class behind.

THE white collar workers have been forced to work multiple jobs to make ends meet. In some cases three meals a day have been cut down to two. The slightly better-off ones have shifted from cars to two-wheelers. Small business owners have taken up part-time jobs with ride-hailing cabs.

This may sound like something out of the Great Depression, but this is today's Pakistan. Dawn spoke to a cross-section of salaried class people and none appeared to be immune from the recent currency shocks and the overall economic downturn.

Over the past couple of days, the rupee plummeted to record levels against the dollar and on Sunday the petroleum prices saw a massive bump of around Rs35. And with that the floodgates of inflation have opened wider for the working class that was already reeling under exorbitant costs of living.

Weekly inflation, measured by Sensitive Price Index, posted an increase of 32.57 per cent on a year-on-year basis ending Jan 26 due to a massive surge in prices of both food and non-food items, especially vegetables like onions, according to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics.

During the week under review, the prices of 25 items increased, six decreased and 20 remained unchanged.

Whether a small business owner or a salaried worker barely making Rs50,000 a month from two jobs, many aren't sure what happened to the economy, but they do know political instability has a lot to do with the mess the country is in where politicians are least bothered about the concerns of the masses.

'In such backbreaking inflation, I have removed my children from a regular school and admitted them to a lower quality one whose fee is 70 per cent less. From using olive oil for cooking due to health reason we have shifted to regular oil. After this political instability and governments changing frequently, we are now forced to use low quality products.

Electricity bills have doubled in the last year and a half. The petrol price inflation has hit so hard that from driving a car I have now moved to a motorbike since June. Now we're hearing the prices of every basic commodity are going to increase further, so I'm wondering if I'd even be able to afford a bicycle,' says Ali Mohsin, who runs a small hair salon on Ferozepur Road.

'Life started getting tough in the last few months of the PTI government and has not eased for a single day since then. The wheat that used to cost me Rs2,000 per maund now costs at least Rs5,800; flour is either not available, is very...