Monitoring Desk
ISLAMABAD/LAHORE: A poverty-hit poor man on Monday tried to finish his and his three children’s lives after swallowing the poisonous pills in Raiwind near Lahore in Pakistan.
Rescue 1122 personnel shifted a man and his three children to the hospital in critical condition. Punjab Police said that the person was under a lot of economic and mental stress due to the rising of inflation. He was unable to provide for himself and his family, keeping in view the galloping prices of daily-use goods.
Punjab Police said that children who were administered poisonous pills by their father were aged between eight and fifteen.
Poverty increases in Pakistan
According to information released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics on Friday, weekly inflation, measured by Sensitive Price Index, posted an increase of 31.83% for a combined income group on a year-on-year basis ending January 19 due to the massive surge in prices of both food and non-food goods.
Former finance minister Miftah Ismail said that more than 80 million citizens in Pakistan are living below the poverty line. As many as 60 percent of Pakistanis earn below Rs35,000.
The World Economic Forum, in its world crisis risk report the previous week, identified debt crisis, sustained and rapid inflation, state collapse, failure of cyber security measures, and concentration of digital power as the top five risks faced by Pakistan.
