People angry over skyrocketing prices in run-up to election

Election banners and flags of all three of main political parties flutter across Punjab, the country’s biggest province and the main battleground for votes in a February 18 elections. But the mood is far from festive in the run-up to the parliamentary elections overshadowed by the assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto on December 27.
Cold winter rain has turned many country roads in the province to mud, but it is rising prices that are the main complaint and would appear to bode ill for the party that backs President Pervez Musharraf and has ruled under him.
“Feeding my family is my biggest worry. What do I care about politics if half my children go to bed hungry?” said Jumma Khan, an unemployed labourer and father-of-10, in the small town of Pathan Kot in central Punjab. The elections are for a lower house of parliament, from where a new prime minister and government will be drawn to govern in cooperation with Musharraf, and for four provincial assemblies.