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| Pak at verge of civil war as country struggles for basic amenities | | | Agencies
New Delhi, Jan 11: Infamous as a factory of terrorism, Pakistan, a country of 23 crore people, is now paying for its crimes.
Patronizing and supporting terrorism in the state policy of the successive Pakistan regimes and now the country is facing worst ever crisis with people struggling to get basic amenities like wheat and bread.
For far too long, Islamabad overlooked governance and instead focused all its energies on using terror as a strategic weapon. Pakistan is facing its worst-ever food crisis with parts of the country reporting a shortage of wheat. Stampedes have been reported in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh, and Balochistan provinces.
Amid massive food crisis, stampedes were reported in Pakistan’s markets due to shortage of wheat in different parts of the country. Stampedes have been reported from markets in several areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh and Balochistan provinces. The local media blames the administration for the crisis, saying there has been total mismanagement both by the food department and flour mills.
As per reports, the prices of wheat flour, which is one of the key constituents of a regular diet as it is used to make chapati or roti, have soared amid the acute shortage of wheat. In Karachi, flour prices rose as high as Rs 140/kg to Rs 160/kg. In several other parts of the country, a 10 kg bag of flour is costing people around Rs 1,500 and a 20 kg bag at Rs 2,800.
Flour crisis has further worsened in Quetta and parts of Balochistan as the price of a 20-kilo flour bag suddenly jumped from Rs2,000 to Rs3,000 in the open market on Wednesday.
The Balochistan government has also completely failed to provide wheat and flour to the masses at subsidized rates. The situation prompted the Balochistan Chief Minister Mir Quddus Bizenjo to order setting up of flour stalls to provide flour at cheaper prices in the Railway Station area of Quetta.
Crowds of people rushed to the Railway Station locality to purchase flour at controlled rate but only a few lucky ones managed to buy it due to large throng of people and mismanagement.
Flour Mills Association has accused the Balochistan government of failure to purchase wheat on time to build its reserves.
According to a report published in a Pakistani daily ‘The Express Tribune’, thousands of people stand in serpentine queues and spend hours to get the subsidized bags of flour as they are short in supply in the normal market. One of the ministers in the Balochistan province, Zamarak Achakzai, said in a report that the food crisis might worsen, as the wheat stocks in some regions have completely exhausted.
Chaotic scenes are being witnessed near vehicles that go to distribute flour. These wheat and flour-loaded mini-trucks and vans are escorted by armed guards to avoid clashes with beneficiaries. A number of such clashes have already been reported at flour dealers.
Since the prices of wheat and flour are relentleslly rising, it has become harder for low-income groups to buy a bag of flour in Pakistan and people are looking to the government for help.
Shehbaz Sharif-led Pakistan government hiked the prices of wheat flour by 25 percent to around 62 percent for sale through the Utility Stores Corporation (USC) with immediate effect to reduce the impact of untargeted subsidies, according to Pakistan’s National daily newspaper. |
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