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PAKISTAN: ‘Empty Stomachs’ Could Spark More Riots, Experts Warn

Zofeen Ebrahim

KARACHI, Sep 23 2009 (IPS) - For a bag of flour, they risked life and limb.

Scores of women, many of them married and with children, gathered outside the office of Chaudhry Iftikhar, a local trader, in the old quarters of the port city’s Khori Garden to get free rations of flour.

Then a stampede broke out as the people scampered to get their hands on the rations, killing 18 women and leaving more than 30 others injured, most of them between ages 30 and 50.

The Sep. 14 unfortunate incident took place while the Ramadan – an Islamic holy month during which people fast from dawn to dusk — was being observed.

During this monthlong religious observance, many philanthropists dole out charity, believing it helps them win favour from God. Pakistan is known to be one of the top ten countries with the highest level of individual charity. Iftikhar had been distributing free rations of flour for over a decade at the site of the stampede.

Facing a judicial inquiry into the incident, Iftikhar blamed the skyrocketing prices of essential commodities, including flour, which he said exacerbated poverty and spawned the Monday mayhem.

Baspareen was among those who perished in the stampede. Her family’s sole breadwinner, her husband being ill, she left behind seven preschool-age children. Safia, the eldest of the brood, will now have to assume her mother’s role of looking after her family.

"Hunger and poverty has a female face, definitely," said parliamentarian Nafisa Shah from Sindh province.

"Women bear the burnt (of hunger)… due to our defined gender roles. Women are responsible for cooking and feeding the children," explained Mustafa Talpur, regional advocacy and policy advisor in Asia for WaterAid, an international non-governmental organisation which provides water, sanitation and hygiene education to some of the world's poor.

Citing food security studies, Talpur said women "are responsible for food grains, cooking. . . and are the last to get food when everybody in the family has had their meal".

"The recent tragic death of women has only made the issue more visible. In rural areas there are many manifestations of hunger — like low birth-weight babies, under-five malnourishment," to name a few. Incidents similar to the Khori Garden stampede — albeit sporadic and on a smaller scale — had taken place in the past, where some people lost lives trying to get food.

In one of these horrific episodes, 12-year-old Ejaz Solangi died in a baton charge by police who were trying to pacify a frenzied mob scrambling for wheat in Thatta, Sindh province. Fifty-five-year-old Mohammad Rafaqat died in Gujranwala in Punjab province while waiting in queue to buy 10 kilograms of flour.

I.A. Rehman, director of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), warned of more of these incidents "if centres for free distribution of food or for sale at subsidized rates are opened."

On the other hand, he said, if such centres are not opened, "we should be prepared for food riots, the first common stage for anarchy," he told IPS.

"There is a revolution brewing, for nothing is worse than an empty stomach," declared social worker Perween Saeed. Ten years ago, she opened a ‘tandoor’ restaurant (where one can buy two pieces of subsidised ‘roti’ – unleavened bread – and get a plate of curry or vegetables for free) for the daily wage earners in a poor locality of Karachi, which she has since expanded to three.

"There will be an increase in criminal activity, and if the state doesn’t pay attention now, the results will be horrific," she warned.

Abdul Sattar Edhi, founder of Pakistan’s best-known charity, Edhi Foundation, said "a bloody revolution is simmering." He added, "people will resort to killing to feed their children."

There have been reports of parents either selling or poisoning their due to poverty. Just recently, a man had gone to the press club in Quetta in the north-west of Balochistan province, announcing that he was selling off his daughter so he could a bag of flour for his family.

Edhi, who runs a ‘langar’(soup kitchen) across Pakistan to feed approximately 250,000 people, has urged people not to sell or kill their children. "Send me your children. I will feed all of them," he said.

"The state needs to take cognizance of these facts. We have serious issues of poverty and hunger in a country which has long been a net grain exporter," said Ali Dayan Hasan, South Asia senior researcher of the Human Rights Watch, during a telephone interview from Lahore, capital of Punjab province.

"We always had poverty and hunger, but never starvation. In large parts of the country, most people got a meal," Hasan said, adding that what was changing now was that the "poor are getting poorer" and that the gap between rich and poor has widened.

Based on 2008 data from the Food and Agriculture Organisation, a specialised agency of the United Nations, undernourishment in Pakistan increased from 24 to 28 percent of the population, and the number of people deemed to be "food insecure" increased from 60 million to 77 million during the same period.

Pakistan’s economic growth slowed to two percent during the fiscal year 2008-2009, down from an average annual 6.8 percent over the previous five years.

Consumer prices in this South Asia’s second largest economy rose 10.7 percent from a year earlier after gaining 11.2 percent in July, according to the Federal Bureau of Statistics.

"It’s a huge failing of successive governments, as we see the gaps widening," said Zohra Yusuf of HRCP.

"That this should happen in a country proud of its nuclear capability and one of the largest standing armies in the world is very instructive," said senior journalist and political analyst Ghazi Salahuddin.

He said those in the government needed to improve their image. "Pakistan must have created a record of (the number of) days its president has been abroad in a year — perhaps more than one hundred days!"

Shah cited "economic meltdown, inflation, the war against militancy" as reasons for the worsening poverty in her country. She was quick to point out, however, that "underspending on social sectors, historically, has made our people vulnerable. Hence (the incidence of) ill health, hunger, illiteracy."

"Non-developmental expenditure remains unchecked while no attempt is made at economic reforms – land or industrial or labour," said Yusuf.

Edhi refused to pin the blame squarely on the government for the extent of poverty now gripping the nation. Tax evaders are responsible for the empty national coffers, he said.

"I also blame all of us who have plenty of money to drink endless cups of tea, smoke cigarettes, chew ‘paan’ (betel leaf) and using cell phones. We are a nation of spendthrifts. No wonder our leaders are begging all the time."

"I don’t think there is a dearth of wheat or rice. Even Pakistan is exporting rice," said Mustafa Talpur, regional advocacy and policy advisor in Asia for WaterAid. The actual issues are "distribution and affordability" of basic commodities for the poor, especially those in urban areas.

Noted economist Haris Gazdar said the "dignified way is to have a proper social protection system in place, which is what some people in governments are trying to do."

He explained: "There is a tradeoff between queues and markets. You ration through queues or through prices, your choice." He said the present scenario was a "media-generated hype," adding that the opposition party, Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz Group), "generated populism around giving free/cheap food to people without having any proper mechanisms in place."

He sid the real culprits of the Khori Garden incident "are foolish and self-promoting private charities, media, and public figures who are generating populism around need."

On Sep. 16, the government launched an income generation programme, Waseela-e-Haq, under which interest-free loans of 3,000 Pakistan rupees (36 U.S. dollars) would be given every month to 731 families, to be paid over a period of 12 to 15 years.

This programme is under the 34 billion-Pakistan rupee (412 million U.S. dollars) Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) launched in October 2008.

"BISP is a very good poverty alleviation programme," conceded Shah, but it needs to be "supplemented with good and sensible spending on the social sectors."

"Priorities have to change if the state considers that people are important," said Hasan.

"As they say, poverty is not about loss of income, it is about loss of capability. We must strengthen our people, men women and children by national literacy schemes, good basic health coverage, skill development and livelihood schemes," said Shah.

Jobs would give people the "capability to confront and overcome poverty."