FOR too long has the power elite of this poor country shamelessly plundered state resources for its own benefit, fattening itself on undue favours and the perks of office. It is time for a reckoning. The tinderbox of public discontent demands nothing less. The government must impose highly visible, acrossthe-board austerity measures on the ruling elite immediately. No half-measures will suffice. The people are staring into the abyss of financial ruin, reeling from an unprecedented cumulative hike of 40pc in petrol prices within a week, a 47pc increase in the per unit electricity tariff and now a 45pc rise in the gas tariff. A spiral of backbreaking inflation, recorded at its highest in 64 weeks, according to the latest figures, has already begun and will push millions more households below the poverty line. So far only the Sindh and KP governments have been responsive to the public mood, slashing the fuel quota enjoyed by cabinet members, legislators and government officials by 40pc and 35pc respectively.

Even this, however, does not go far enough. There is no justification for any fuel allowance in these financially straitened times for government officials, not when the people they are supposed to serve are suffering so.

On Friday, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif called on the privileged classes to make sacrifices and adopt simplicity, saying this was necessary in these challenging times. It would be extremely foolish to expect that appeals to the conscience of a historically indifferent class will have any impact. There must be tangible actions to demonstrate that the ruling elite is prepared to share the burden of belt-tightening with the common man. At this critical juncture, it makes both economic as well as political sense to dismantle, as far as possible, the trappings of the prevailing VIP culture that is flaunted every day in the face of `ordinary citizens` One sees it in the needlessly ostentatious security escorts for some individuals, the contingents of hangers-on accompanying members of the ruling elite for umrah at state expense, the foreign junkets of government officials with their family members going along for the ride, and so on. Whatever their differences, the ruling elite is almost always in harmony where it comes to enhancing perks and privileges, including overly generous health and travel facilities, for themselves and their families. In a country where millions struggle without adequate access to basic amenities, such disparity in lifestyles is no less than obscene. A course correction is long overdue.

Preferential treatment to certain members of society was always morally and legally wrong. To continue on such a path now would be economically unfeasible and tantamount to political suicide. Public resentment against the privileged class already runs so deep that unless conspicuous measures are taken to address this inequity, the anger could spill over into civil unrest. Optics matter.