PAKISTANIS are the richest people in the world right now. The only country with fuel prices exceeding Rs300 per litre, yet its people are unbothered, unaffected. When the news broke, I thought the roads would go silent as had been the case during the Covid pandemic. Life would be affected, I thought. But I totally forgot how rich we as a nation are.

It is not that the people of Pakistan are enjoying this petrol price hike, but the problem lies in the normality surrounding our lives. The nation keeps shopping and dining when they should have been protesting against the petrol prices.

Instead of taking actions we laugh at our situation, making memes about it and calling it a coping mechanism. What is stopping us from speaking up? Or are we just too dissociated from the real world? Pakistanis always wait for a saviour to protect them, to guard them and to heroically ask for their rights. For their own rights, they rely on someone else. Till the Pakistanis continue to play the victim in their minds, they should consider them-selves equally responsible for their situation.

Syeda Mirha Jawed
Karachi

Published in Dawn, April 28th, 2026