Sharing Same Fate!

Asem Mustafa Awan

Islamabad: They all share the same fate, which is despair. Taking a chance on a bag of flour that has claimed many lives owing to poor distribution planning by the government not long ago, these are recent pictures of Islamabad, the beautiful federal capital of Pakistan.

This has never happened in the past when so many human lives—minors included—were trampled en masse. This scene created a global uproar, and the heart-wrenching videos were very distressing.

Every year, a flour crisis followed by a disappearing sugar crisis hit the media, and this time around, the two still exist, but how to curb their disappearance is a question that has an answer that runs in billions.

It is baseless to state that the government doesn’t know these mafias and the routes they undertake for smuggling. Who controls these routes, and who is at these routes? The answer lies in that, and since millions are made by trafficking flour and the like, it is beyond belief that the state is unaware of that.

Read More: https://thepenpk.com/disorder-on-display/

These pictures, taken at different times, depict how desperate and deplorable the situation is for the inhabitants of Pakistan, who drop below the poverty line by millions with each passing month.

The pictures represent a child and two women carrying a bag on their heads. The child sits huddled in a corner, safeguarding the 30 kilos of flour that probably weigh more than her actual weight, but to protect the merchandise, she must sit quietly in a corner, waiting for help to arrive.

The recent deaths in the past have not moved the hearts of the policymakers, as instead of making the distribution process error-free, scores of people are still seen at the distribution points.

The government must revisit its strategy as so many hungry mouths with very little voice can shout at the top of their lungs, chanting slogans against them, and if these shouts go unheard, the likely scenario is ransacking the distribution point.

It is time the government turns its attention towards the hungry and voiceless residents of Pakistan before it’s too late.

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

Photo Credit: Sultan Bashir & Sohail Shahzad