Quick to point out economic success, the spin doctors in the Army establishment are keeping Mum at how crippling food inflation is destroying the poor and middle class in Pakistan.
PML-Q quiet on inflation
By Zaheer Ahmed Khan
PRICES of milk, cooking oil, ghee, wheat, sugar, egg, meat and grains have seen a tremendous increase during the past few years — mainly because of shortages.
Experts in livestock and agriculture development are of the view that grain, meat and poultry rates would continue to rise until the government develops the sector on scientific lines, aimed at increasing the productivity of farm produce to get improved supplies of food grains and other raw material for the industry (i.e. sugarcane, seed-cotton, hides, furs, nuts and by products, etc).
The country is currently facing a wheat flour crisis, and there are indications that the shortage may persist till the availability of a new crop by March next year. In the meantime, it is feared, the price situation may further aggravate unless steps are taken to check hoarding and smuggling.
A comparison of atta prices between utility stores and the open market reveals that in the latter, it is available for Rs240 per 10kgs in Karachi (and even Rs280 in some other parts of the country), whereas the price at utility stores is Rs130 per 10kgs.
At the utility stores, long queues of consumers endure a tiresome wait for hours together to purchase a bag of atta. But the government is in no charitable mood. Consumers must buy sugar, ghee and other items along with atta.
Sikandar, a driver by profession, said while the government’s approach is to facilitate consumers through utility stores, in practice it is a tormenting exercise these days to purchase a product from a utility store.
A number of people, especially women who went through a back-breaking wait at the USCs at Gizri, Saudabad, Khokhrapar, Korangi, Shah Faisal Colony, complained that they had been unable to get atta even after standing in queue the entire day.
There had been a crisis of sugar in the past. Although sugar is available in the market, there is a sharp difference in its price in the market and at a store.
Currently, there is a cotton shortage, and prices have affected the industry’s profitability.
Actually prices of agriculture produce, poultry and dairy products increased substantially during the past five years owing to wrong policies of the government, which concentrated on the development of infrastructure in urban centres, and at the cost of 60 per cent rural populace of the country, said Fayaz, an agriculture graduate who works at a livestock-related business concern.