Trampling Human Dignity

Pakistan In Picture 

Asem Mustafa Awan

People are dying, and number is likely to rise with each passing day as cheap flour which is also reported to be very substandard is provided free from the government for the poor.

The three bags for the poor families during Ramazan as announced by the government has its own nightmares and the nation as a whole is put to shame for that there is no system in place that can identify the poor and provide sustenance for the needy at their doorstep.

It is not a thing of the past Punjab, before the partition of Pakistan and India was feeding the entire sub-continent and more and the people never slept hungry as the food was always there if not the opulence.

Pakistan over the years and since its inception in 1947 achieved brilliance and self-sufficiency in food, namely flour the staple diet of millions but as time passed this staple diet that was supposed to be in abundance dwindled and diminishing with each passing day.

How did this happen though it is harped time and again that Pakistan is an agrarian country but the long line for the quest of flour raises questions as what went wrong and how?

Floods are a regular feature every year and a precious resource namely water is wasted every year.

There are no dams to tap water owing to politicians who with a petty approach think of their personal interests and never the national cause. This water if tapped can be used for agricultural needs and the nation’s pride as a whole will not be trampled.

The woeful pictures put a person to shame as this is happening in Pakistan, and that too during Ramadan the holiest of all months.

A country that had every resource in the world but its people are faced with the dilemma of surviving on a day-to-day basis and more than half the population living below the poverty line and millions joining them owing to industry closures.

The nation as a whole is going in a nosedive with economic and political chaos everywhere. The government has been asking for alms globally and sadly the international money lenders are not looking in their direction.

This scribe shares a photo of the flour distribution point and this picture displays all their hotchpotch schemes that are aimed only for publicity.

The most deplorable aspect in the picture has a poor woman surrounded by people having a hand on a bag of flour.

The other picture by photographer Saju Khan shows a total lack of consideration from the government where a woman holding a child is faced with the dilemma of carrying three bags on her head beside the child. The total weight of flour and the child exceeds the weight of the woman as malnourished and underfed she is forced to take this substandard flour as people simply don’t have the means and money to buy food.

All tall claims of the state having nuclear capability leave a big question mark on the competency of the policymakers who couldn’t devise a distribution plan where human dignity is honoured and not trampled.

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

Photo Credit: Saju Khan