Pakistan’s Social Divide

Asem Mustafa Awan: Tim Hortan has plans to expand his coffee brand outlets to Lahore after breaking his 61-year sales record in Canada.
The long queues of people in the posh Lahore society are in direct contrast to the image of Pakistan as the ‘land of the poor’.
The gated communities in Pakistan have a world of their own with secured entry and exit points. Only selective people can enter these enclaves of luxury and opulence.
Access to the average commoner is denied on the pretext of security, yet we know that these gated communities hide behind their outward privilege and affluence a deep sense of insecurity, ill-assured wealth, moral and social corruption, and decadence.

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The two pictures show the two extremes that can be rightly termed as ‘two Pakistan’s ‘, one where people line up to satisfy their taste buds, , the other shows the dire position of those queuing up to access subsidised but substandard staple food items.
We are left scratching our heads at the two opposite ends of society, two different world that have grown so apart that there coming together seems like a distant hope.
The stories of people standing for long hours in queues for a meagre bag of flour are a common occurrence; in fact, it has become the norm.
The government, with all its entourage of policymakers, continues to fail badly to deliver the very basic ‘food’ item that in reality should be plentiful in the land of agriculture. Where it all goes is the question we keep asking. The answer may be with those standing in the queue for coffee.
The mini budget was announced on Wednesday, and with soaring prices, millions more will join the poverty line. A steaming cup of coffee is a dividing line between the’ haves and have nots’ in Pakistan.

The writer is a journalist based in Islamabad and writes on a wide range of issues.

Photo Credit: Anonymous photographer