Mind-boggling

Flour is one of the most basic foods, but it is being priced as if it is a rare delicacy. The government has set up several free flour distribution points to try and ease the situation. However, the distribution of flour has been managed so poorly that people are dying of heat exhaustion and in stampedes at these free flour points. Who thought it would be a good idea to have thousands of poor and underfed people line up for hours in the sweltering heat for bags of flour, which may or may not be sufficient for everyone? It is no surprise that it is extremely difficult to keep people in line and maintain order under these circumstances, which has resulted in stampedes. Would it not have been safer and more practical to simply take the money the government has spent buying bags of flour and use it to provide a flower subsidy which would lower prices?

Tazeen Faheem

Islamabad