Consumers in Pakistan have been struggling to make ends meet with prices of essential commodities shooting through the roof. Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has found himself on a slippery slope over several issues plaguing the country

PM Imran Khan has severed ties with the military and surrendered to hardline Islamists even as the country grapples with record inflation.

Winds of change have been blowing from Rawalpindi as Lt General Nadeem Anjum is the incoming chief of Pakistan's intelligence agency ISI. The ISI along with Pakistan's all-powerful military makes some of the most crucial decisions in the country.

Nadeem Anjum will now be heading the ISI, however, PM Imran Khan is not happy as reports say that it took the Pakistan prime minister three weeks to give the go-ahead for Nadeem Anjum's nomination because he replaced a man who was very close to Imran.

Lt General Faiz Hameed, the former ISI chief is credited to have helped Imran Khan's party win the 2018 election.

Pakistan's Army chief General Bajwa is set to retire next year and the country goes to the polls in 2023. Faiz Hameed and Imran Khan were likely to have struck a symbiotic deal. However, the plan fell apart when Pakistan's army proposed a new ISI chief.

Imran initially refused to sign the appointment and had a face-off with General Bajwa. However, the Pakistan prime minister had to ultimately approve Lt General Nadeem Anjum's appointment.

While PM Imran Khan was fighting the army, he was also losing the battle to Pakistan's extremists.

For over a year, Tehreek-i-Labbaik has been protesting to expel the French ambassador from Pakistan and end trade with France after President Emmanuel Macron defended caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad in France as freedom of expression.

The TLP cried blasphemy and took up swords against France while making impossible demands as it moved to block critical highways and sat endlessly in protest.

Pakistan authorities arrested TLP's leader Saad Hussain Rizvi and banned the group. TLP members however took to the streets and demanded the release of their leader along with the expulsion of the French ambassador.

The TLP staged nationwide protests as it turned violent killing at least 21 people including ten policemen. The Imran Khan government decided to bow to the TLP and signed a deal with the group.

At least 2,000 TLP supporters have already been released from various jails and the ban on the party has been lifted.

Amid the upheaval, consumers in Pakistan have been struggling to make ends meet with prices of essential commodities shooting through the roof including sugar, petrol and electricity.

The price of electricity has been hiked up by 1.68 Pakistani rupees per unit. Imran Khan had announced a 120 billion rupees subsidy promoting it as Pakistan's biggest-ever subsidy package.

However, the voters weren't impressed as some said Imran Khan's "Naya Pakistan" has become too expensive to live in. The opposition in turn slammed the subsidy and said it is too little for 200 million people.

Petrol currently costs 145.8 Rupees a litre in Pakistan and for the first time in the country's history petrol products have crossed the 110 rupee mark. Pakistan's consumer price index is up 9.2 per cent compared to the previous year as inflation has hit a 70-year-high.

Pakistan's inflation is expected to keep rising at least for the next six months, according to a report by The Economist intelligence unit even as Imran Khan's government blamed it on global inflation.

Meanwhile, the opposition has become stronger particularly former prime minister Nawaz Sharif's PML(N).

Sharif's daughter Mariam Nawaz has been leading massive rallies in Punjab. Experts say Imran Khan's PTI no longer stands a chance in the 2023 elections. The media has also been questioning whether these developments will encourage the army the perfect space needed to stage a coup.