A continuing horror story

According to the figures we have available, Pakistanis from all classes ranging from low-income groups to the middle-class salaried workers spend nearly 35 percent of their income on food. This amounts to a huge chunk out of what they earn. In this situation, the continuing rise in the prices of wheat flour (atta) and sugar despite government’s promises is hurting them extremely hard. And yet we can see that the sale of sugar at over Rs100 per kg across the country and of atta of up to Rs1500 in some places for a 20-kg bag is a result of consistent government mismanagement, and their peculiar insistence of blaming everything that goes wrong on mafias, provincial governments run by the opposition, which in this case exists only in Sindh. Prime Minister Imran Khan himself had seen the first round of this price crisis early in the year and said it would not reoccur. He had ordered an inquiry, reports of which were indeed published. For this, the government deserves credit. But in inquiry reports, which named among others Jehangir Tareen, a close adviser of Imran Khan, who has since left the country for London, are apparently not enough to scare off those involved in any way in the price rise

This is especially true since increase in prices is largely linked to the government’s own mismanagement. In the first place, last year it had allowed wheat to be exported on the grounds that a surplus was expected. This led to a situation of wheat that now had to be imported. The decision on importing this from where and how, however, took so long that global prices rose also increasing prices in the market. To top all this, the minister for food security says he is not clear about where the wheat may have gone. This is hardly reassuring and offers no confidence in the government’s ability to run the most important affairs of the country. Providing food to people is surely one of these.

In addition to all this, there is consistent increase in prices, including in Punjab where the government has taken hold of most of the wheat stocks itself to prevent black-marketing or illegal sales by those who wish to hold it and sell it at higher prices. But let us cut a long story short. The short part is that people are literally now on the brink of starvation and in danger of facing still harder times due to mismanagement and possible corruption. The long story is that the government appears to have no solutions. Inquiry reports, just like X-rays, do not cure a disease. They can help diagnose the reasons, but action is then required to find a solution.