Pakistan: Poor people returning to villages as living costs surge in cities

Islamabad [Pakistan], October 15 (ANI): In the aftermath of excessive prices of essential commodities in Pakistan, people who migrated to cities for better livelihood have started moving back to villages, The Express Tribune reported on Sunday.
As per the Pakistan-based newspaper, Pakistan's $350 billion economy is in meltdown with low growth, a weak currency and spiralling prices. The pain is being felt most keenly by those living on low incomes in cities. Some have decided that the only answer is to leave or to send their families back to their home villages, where living is cheap.
A Pakistani woman, Salma Faheem returned to her village after his husband faced difficulties in affording his family expenses in city.
According to The Express Tribune, Salma Faheem has not spoken to her husband, Mohammad, since June, when he dropped her and their three children off in his home village of Dalma in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) because he could no longer afford to have them living with him in Karachi.
Now instead of living in one room in an urban slum with water on tap and a gas-powered cooker, Salma has to walk an hour every day to fetch water and she must cook her family's meals on a wood-fired stove. "I hate it here," she said by phone. "I loved it in Karachi."
Her husband, Faheem, 33, is not happy either but he feels he had no choice. "In the village, the house is ours so it is rent-free," he said. "(But) I loved having them around. I miss my children," said Faheem, who earns Rs35,000 a month as a furniture handler could no longer stretch to cover food, rent and tuition.
High fuel and energy prices have pushed inflation to 31.4% year-on-year in September, up from 27.4% in August, and there is little the new caretaker government, which took over in August, can do to rein in prices.
Apart from Salma Faheem, Waseem Anwar, a water filter and sanitary fittings installer also moved with his wife and five children to the small dusty town of Chowk Marlay in May this year.
He said, "The decision to return to our hometown was not an easy one."
As per The Express Tribune, Anwar's wages could no longer cover rent, utilities, medical expenses and tuition in the city. "Although the work opportunities here [village] are not as plentiful, the reduction in my overhead expenses to about half ... has provided great relief," Anwar, who now works as a plumber, said, 'Alleviate suffering.'
A $3 billion loan programme, approved by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) last July, averted a sovereign debt default but reforms linked to the bailout, including an easing of import restrictions and a demand that energy and fuel subsidies be removed, have thrown oil on the inflation fire.
According to The Express Tribune, the economic crisis is exacerbated by rising political tensions ahead of a national election scheduled for January. With no relief in sight, some people in this nation of around 240 million are cutting costs the only way they can: by moving home to their villages. (ANI)