KARACHI: Saima works as a maid in a posh locality in Karachi. She lives in Hijrat Colony. “I used to buy a 1kg gas cylinder for Rs280, now it costs Rs450,” she laments. All her essential expenses have surged. The gallon of salty water she uses for cleaning has gone from Rs20 to Rs70, while a gallon of drinking water now costs Rs120 instead of Rs50.
“They tell me it’s because of higher petrol prices increasing transport costs, but petrol prices have not increased by the same proportion as daily essentials,” she says, puzzled.
Even small treats are now unaffordable. “I used to buy two Rs20 chip packets for each child, but now one packet is Rs50. I can only afford one, so each child gets fewer chips,” she says.
For Pakistan’s lowest-income households, record fuel prices have translated into an inflationary shock. Yet while the poorest households are under immense strain, Pakistan’s deep culture of philanthropy and informal support still offers some cushion in urban centres.
Earning too much to qualify for assistance, but too little to survive surging prices, white-collar families are slipping through the cracks of a historic cost-of-living crisis
Roughly 73 per cent of Pakistanis donated money for various social causes in 2024, according to the Pakistan Centre for Philanthropy’s (PCP) Giving in Pakistan report 2025. The greater blind spot may instead be the country’s increasingly squeezed Safed Posh, the salaried middle-class.
A philanthropy cushion
Pakistan receives roughly $40 billion in remittances annually. Accounting for zakat alone, nearly $1bn may circulate informally among lower-income households, said Syed Hasan Ali, country director of the i-Care Foundation.
Faisal Edhi, chairman of the Edhi Foundation, noted the lowest-income group sits idle for 15 to 18 hours without water, gas or electricity. Yet despite Ramazan donations dropping 20pc, the organisation’s services continue without serious strain.
The Layton Rahmatulla Benevolent Trust, which treats around three million patients annually through 63 clinics, reports similar donor resilience. However, only one in three patients is willing to travel to the trust’s hospitals for procedures.
“The main reason is that they cannot afford the fare,” said Najmus Saquib Hameed, the trust’s honorary chairman. When transport support is provided, nearly 80pc are willing to travel.
While well-organised charities remain resilient through diaspora support, smaller charities have been hit harder by rising operational costs, explains Dr Nosheen Mahmood, PCP’s manager research.
The invisible Safed Posh
Philanthropy cushions some of the macroeconomic blow for the poorest households. However, the lower-middle and salaried families often fall into a support vacuum as they earn too much to qualify for sadqa or zakat but too little to absorb sustained inflation.
Aquil Halai, a trustee of the Ahsaas Trust, worries most about this demographic. His organisation supports families of single women with children under 18.
“Usually, people in metro cities help out household staff,” Halai said. “But families with a single breadwinner earning Rs150,000 to Rs200,000 are struggling the most. When you account for school fees, utility bills, rent and transport, they reach a point where they have to choose between groceries or school fees.”
As a textile entrepreneur, Halai noted retail customers who previously bought an average of four apparel pieces per invoice are now buying just 2.7. Furthermore, seven to eight employees at his factory recently borrowed money for household expenses for the first time.
Majyd Aziz, president of the Employers Federation of Pakistan, pointed to a similar trend, saying requests for salary advances among white-collar employees have risen sharply, particularly among those ineligible for charitable support.
Meanwhile, annual pre-budget surveys, conducted since 2020 to gauge the financial condition of its urban, salaried readership, indicate wage protections have not kept pace with inflation.
Survey results
A recent Dawn survey of 300 respondents found 55.6pc could not raise pay concerns without fear of losing their jobs.
Only one in ten respondents said salary increments were explicitly linked to inflation and 15.5pc received no annual increment whatsoever.
At the same time, household costs have fundamentally shifted. In 2020, about 15pc of respondents spent more than Rs30,000 monthly on electricity, gas and water.
By 2025, that figure rose past 40pc. For middle-income households, utilities consume a quarter to a third of take-home pay.
Food expenditure shows a similar pattern. In 2020, typical respondents spent Rs20,000 to Rs30,000 monthly on groceries. By 2025, more than half reported spending above Rs50,000.
Even transport-related employment benefits appear increasingly rare. Just two out of 284 Dawn survey respondents reported receiving fuel or car allowances.
Mobility company BusCaro estimates app-based rickshaw, car and bike ride fares have risen by roughly 40pc since late February.
Fuel inflation is affecting socioeconomic groups across the spectrum. For the poorest, philanthropy still provides relief, but for Pakistan’s salaried middle class, the margins are rapidly disappearing.
Published in Dawn, June 1st, 2026
