Came across this news which would have gone unnoticed. I hope such measures start to bring PTI into the attention of the poor people of Pakistan, so that they vote for him the next time around. Kudos to the PTI doing something, even though they aren’t in power.
In the face of obnoxiously high, pocket pinching inflation, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Lahore has begun a new welfare program lead by Lahore President Mian Mehmood ur Rashid and Welfare President Javed Butt.
The program envisages teaming with established tandoor in the lower class areas of the city and selling roti and naan for less than half the cost. Roti are being sold for 2 rupees and Naan for 3.
The first tandoor was launched today, August 27, 2008 in the congested run-down locality of Dubanpura. Chairman Khan visited the area to inaugurate the project amidst massive applause.
“Inflation has broken the back of the common person and those sitting in parliament cannot seem to find the time to help the poor,” said the Chairman.
“Tandoor like these will be opened across Pakistan to show that Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf is committed to help fight the dreadful effects of inflation.”
According to Mian Mehmud ur Rashid, the idea was plucked out of the books of the AKP (former Welfare) party in Turkey which had begun to sell bread at subsidized rates in the localities of Ankara and Istanbul after the country was hit with hyper inflation in the mid-1980’s. Places selling cheap bread became so popular in Turkey, that private bakeries ended up going out of business. It was schemes like these which helped propel the AKP to become the largest and most popular party in Turkish politics. PTI Lahore leadership and the party’s central executives feel the model can be replicated in Pakistan as affordable roti is the need of the hour.
Between now and the end of Ramzan, four tandoor will become operational. Once they are successful, the ‘Sasta Tandoor’ scheme will spread across the localities of Lahore and Pakistan.
Because of the repute of Chairman Khan, many concerned citizens have come forward to provide free flour for this scheme. As 60% of the cost of running the ‘Sasta Tandoor’ is the cost of the flour, the scheme has potential to be an enormous success.
PTI encourages all its members to help out in this effort – be it in the form of organizing donating flour or manpower to oversee the individual projects. This will show to the people that even though Tehreek-e-Insaf is not in parliament, it is making efforts to help alleviate hardships of the downtrodden – more so than those in the corridors of power.
its a laudable in spirit but dangerous in practice idea, as mentioned in the article if it actually does work it will end up sending bakeries out of business. that is a bad thing, unless ofcourse you have an anti-bakery agenda. reminds one of the time when America sent free wheat to Nicaragua after a natural disaster, ruining their wheat farmers. if you really want to help people give them more money or vouchers so they can buy the bread at the market rate, or work on the supply side to subsidise the price of wheat by for example covering some of the cost. this is just one step away from socialism, and an indication of the nature of Imrans policies if he ever gets political control anywhere.
If the ghareeb awam can get sastee roti and fill their stomach I do not care about the bakeries being closed , in Pakistan the bakeries are not frequented by ghareeb awam anyways.
Also bakeries can sell other items , like cakes , pastries, cake rusks, biscuits, and last but not the least double roties etc. , etc.
If the ghareeb awam can get sastee roti and fill their stomach I do not care about the bakeries being closed , in Pakistan the bakeries are not frequented by ghareeb awam anyways.
Where do you think ghareeb awam were buying their roti from before?
com'n guys think logically. it will affect local barkeries only if there are dozens of them in each city. FOUR bakeries are not enough to fulfill needs of Gulberg, let alone the whole city. Give him credit for atleast doing something about a REAL issue here. Nor him or PTI have that kind of resources to support this project on national level.
With the way the local tanoors keep increasing the price of the roti, and decrease the size, I dont care about them either.
and you dont think that is reflective of an economic reality?
com'n guys think logically. it will affect local barkeries only if there are dozens of them in each city. FOUR bakeries are not enough to fulfill needs of Gulberg, let alone the whole city. Give him credit for atleast doing something about a REAL issue here. Nor him or PTI have that kind of resources to support this project on national level.
which is why I said "if it actually does work". They cite Turkey as their model, where the article does say that it did end up causing bakeries to close down.
If it is gesture politics with no pretensions to national level impact then at the very least the approach advocated for solving social problems is open for criticism. Nobody is saying all tandoors will go out of business, what I did say is that this approach is indicative of the wrong mindeded, demonstratedly failed socialist-ish policies that have ruined economies and small business in different parts of the world.. for example the USA/Nicaragua example.
At the level of social work, ofcourse it is laudable, but as a policy position it is bad.
Cheaper weekly bazaars haven't broken the back of big shopping malls...
But they may break the back of small vendors, especially if these bazaars are subsidised (i.e. not market competetive). How in the name of God are tandoors (the pakistani equivalent of turkish bakeries) akin to big shopping malls?
Then you should know enough...Turkish bakers sell breads as well as other bakers'productline while tandoors in Pakistan only make and sell plain rotis...most of them just have a simple tandoor and few might have doug making machines...or none...
Then you should know enough...Turkish bakers sell breads as well as other bakers'productline while tandoors in Pakistan only make and sell plain rotis...most of them just have a simple tandoor and few might have doug making machines...or none...
on the contrary, you're assuming too much. Having lived in the gulf I have seen simple tandoors labeled as bakeries. Egypt, where the bread supply is government run, the bread is distributed through lines at bakeries, which does not mean that the government is in the business of distributing pastries.
clearly the possibly varied productline of the amorphous group of traders that come under the label of "bakery" outside Pakistan is of little relevance when we take into consideration that we are only talking about them here because they started closing when the subsidised bread gained popularity in Turkey. To that extent, such bakers are completely analogous to tandoors in Pakistan.
Ravage bhai, how will tandoors go out of business because of this? instead of customer paying full cost, he pays part and the balance is paid by PTI right?
Ravage bhai, how will tandoors go out of business because of this? instead of customer paying full cost, he pays part and the balance is paid by PTI right?
man, talk about a waste of words.
Yep I stand corrected, he is working with 'established tandoors' in the locality, whereas I was thinking he started his own tandoors because of the phrasing "the first tandoor was launched..". That is pretty much what I was saying by subsidizing the supply side, although it would be better not to favour particular bakeries over others but thats a relatively minor quibble.