People in Pakistan are taking loan for their food
The situation of malnutrition in Pakistan was not good throughout history but the current situation is drastic. According to reports, Malnutrition levels in the southern province of Sindh have reached 21 to 23 per cent…………The emergency standard is 15 per cent,” the WFP official said. (dawn)
The worst condition of malnutrition in the world over the years was in African countries but, now it seems that Pakistan is taking over.
Some months back a report was issued which states that the people of Pakistan are taking less wheat with proportion to the increase in population. It clearly meant that they are eating lesser than the past years or lesser than their need, which is shown in the above report once again.
This is only because the purchasing power of the people is decreasing day by day. In a newspaper, I read that the expense of food by the people of developed countries is much lesser than the developing countries it is almost 30 % of their income on average. In another report, it is stated that 40 % of people in Pakistan spend their whole income (100 %) on food consumption and they are malnutrition. The situation is worse than the report. A recent survey found that in some flood-hit areas, 70 per cent of people were taking out loans and even using them to pay for food. (Harbinger, WFP)
Our hajj policy was criticized by the Saudi prince now our agricultural policy is criticized by WFP.
“You may have the country full with food but people are too poor to buy it,” he explained. “We are working a lot with the Ministry of Agriculture to explain to the minister that it is not enough to have enough production in the country if people can’t afford it. Maybe for political reasons he doesn't always understand it, that it’s one thing to be nice to the farmers but if your consumers can’t afford it then… there’s something wrong with the agricultural policy,” Harbinger added.
The main wheat and other daily consumed items are grown in the fields of our policymakers.
When they can earn through this situation, why will they decrease the price of these items? They know that bumper crop is expected in this season, therefore, they decided to export reserve stock of wheat to earn dollars.
The reports show that the federal government for providing fiscal breathing space to the Punjab government has allowed shipment of two million tons of wheat from the province to generate foreign exchange. The real situation is that this decision was taken last year but due to the expulsion of PPPP ministers from the provincial cabinet recently has led to delay in the permission of wheat exports.
This clearly shows that the government is not in any type of public favour they are just trying to generate money for themselves.
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