In a disturbing revelation, the World Food Programme (WFP) Director in Pakistan, Wolfgang Herbinger, has stated that, according to a recent survey, people were taking out loans to pay for food: You may have the country full with food, but people were too poor to buy it. He went on to say that the WFP was struggling a bit to get the message across: We are working a lot with the ministry of agriculture to explain to the minister that it is not enough to have production in the country if people cant afford (to buy) it. May be, for political reasons, he doesnt always understand it, that its one thing to be nice to the farmers, but if your consumers cant afford it, then its…So, theres something wrong with the agricultural policy.
He told journalists at the sidelines of the humanitarian meetings in Geneva: Malnutrition levels for the province of Sindh (that was hit by floods last summer) had reached 21 to 23 percent. That is well above average African standards. The emergency standard is 15%. According to the same survey, people pay double the price for wheat as compared to three years ago.
The statement is a macrocosmic reflection of the government policies in various sectors that impact the lives of the ordinary people. It is not the price of wheat alone that has gone up since the incumbent government took over; the overall cost of living has registered a phenomenal increase that is well beyond the reach of a bulk of the people. Consequently, as is amply borne out by the recent indicators, poverty syndrome has enveloped most of the people of the country. More particularly, it has ravaged a majority of the population living in the urban enclaves who have to pay two to three times more as compared to a couple of years ago just to be able to survive a struggle that they seem to be fast losing. Those worst hit are a majority of the middle-class to lower-middle class people.
The worsening poverty indicators are an apt manifestation of the inadequacies of governance. Every policy, every priority is impacted by this harrowing failing. According to Human Development Index (HDI), 60.3% of Pakistans population lives on under $2 a day and some 22.6% live on under $1 a day. Adding to the gruesome picture is the uneven wealth distribution in the country. An estimated 30% of national income is shared by less than 10% of the population. Major contributing factors to the fast-deteriorating situation include inept governance, a predominantly feudal structure and mindset and the inherent inequality built into the system because of discriminatory access to the basic requisites essential for development including, most critically, education.
Instead of feeling humbled by the increasing sufferings of the people and initiating corrective measures, the government is busy scoring political points through its ill-conceived income-support programmes which have already seen the sinking of billions from the national exchequer and which are plagued by serious accusations of mismanagement and corruption. It fails to realise that doling out alms to the poor adversely impacts their self-respect and dignity, but does not provide a permanent solution to the problem. A permanent solution, if the government is interested in having one, lies in addressing the phenomenon of poverty in its entirety.
This can materialise only if the government has the moral fibre and the political will to come up with creative solutions. As against the existing structure that is inordinately inclined to serving the resourceful only, the system has to be so re-designed that it works for the betterment of the poor and entails the rich to pay more for their comforts. It must address not only the cancer of feudalism in terms of disproportionate land holdings, but also its attending mindset that has crept into the working of the entire government. Transparency, equitability, efficiency and a belief in the justness of the cause that is being pursued are the essential ingredients that should constitute a fresh approach to addressing the problems that have plagued the growth of the country and created disconcerting disparities.
This said; does the government have the necessary will and the wherewithal to undertake the effort? For that to happen, it has to address the inherent issue of an absence of legitimacy depriving it of the writ which is accepted and respected by all. On the contrary, the government has repeatedly succumbed to the pressure of mafias whom it patronises for political gains, to design its policies that serve and advance their vested interests alone. Consequently, there are big businesses that have remained outside the tax net including agricultural income, stock exchange and real estate. These are the mafias that control the policy-making echelons of the government by sharing their spoils with the rich and the influential.
In Pakistan, quite literally, provision of development opportunities to a bulk of the people is impeded by the governmental pre-occupation to ensure the survival of one person who, beyond his individual interests, also represents a retrogressive mindset. It is grotesque, yet true. The fact that this is happening when Pakistan has an independent judiciary and a free media makes it truly mind-boggling. But, it is so and is likely to remain unchanged as long as drastic measures are not initiated to arrest the forces of the status quo that thrive only on ensuring that the inequitable system not only survives, but it prospers and gains more ground.
Failing this, the veneer that is available in gross abundance, would hide the poverty, hunger and the multiple deprivations of a bulk of the poor people of the country. The rich, in spite of their small numbers, would continue to monopolise all the engines of productivity and progress, thus depriving a majority of the people of Pakistan of their inalienable right to be equal partners in the development opportunities that the state should naturally and indiscriminately provide to them.
The writer is a media consultant to the Chief Minister, Punjab.
