Pakistanis are leaving our country in droves due to inflation and job losses –
Pakistanis are leaving our country in droves due to inflation and job losses – who can blame them?
After decades on the edge, Pakistan is now fully in crisis. And a general election later this year is unlikely to bring change
Quote:
Last month, Anthony Soshil went to renew his passport in Lahore at a normally sleepy bureaucratic office. He had a contact there and expected to be ushered straight to the counter. Instead, he was flung into a melee of thousands of desperate people. Fights were breaking out everywhere. Police were summoned to quell the crowds. Quickly overwhelmed, the police called the army.
Last year, more than 800,000 Pakistanis left the country in search of better economic prospects abroad. With rocketing inflation and the rupee devaluing by 30% during 2022, millions of urban middle-class people have been pushed to the brink of poverty. Cataclysmic floods have ravaged the rural poor. With only enough foreign reserves to pay for less than a month of imports, the state is on its knees.
Life is like an ocean. It can be calm and still or rough and rigid. But in the end it’s always beautiful. 
