Food insecurity is on the rise as millions of people have failed to find adequate food and nutritious intake due to high food prices. Food insecurity has become one of the major problems in Pakistan and the government has its constitutional obligation to invest in the food sector so as to provide food security to its people. Rural women have less access to basic needs of life such as food, health and education.
This was stated at the proceedings of Pakistan’s first peoples tribunal on impact of food prices held by a jury comprising Justice (r) Fakhrunnisa Khokhar, former senior judge of Supreme Court of Pakistan, as its head while Justice (r) Nazir Gazi, Barrister Shahida Jamil (former law minister), and Khalid Habib (former additional attorney general of Pakistan) as members in Lahore.
The panel of four retired jurists said that rising food prices were denying the right to adequate food to the poorest in Pakistan, provoking hunger, malnutrition and social unrest across the country. They unanimously held government responsible for bad food governance in the country and recommended improvements.
The tribunal was held jointly by Action Against Hunger and Malnutrition, Pakistan, Society for Conservation and Protection of Environment and Oxfam Pakistan with objective to highlight issues of poor, especially of women and children, relating to their access to food on affordable prices; and to brainstorm on impact of food prices on food security and nutrition among poor communities in the country.
The event was attended by masses, right activists, lawyers, judges as well as representatives from civil society and media. Irfan Mufti of South Asia Partnership-Pakistan moderated the day-long court proceedings.
Before an audience of around 200 people, the distinguished panel of retired judges heard presentations on four cases of community issues regarding access to food. During case presentations, presenters also noted violations of the constitution of Pakistan. After a full day of hearing and proceedings, the tribunal took the unanimous decision to admit all the cases and recommended that cases to be followed by the government in order to protect right to food of people.
The tribunal specified that the victims in these cases were the poorest community members, especially women and children, who were yet deprived of their right to adequate food.
Tanveer Arif of SCOPE initiated the proceedings with a brief introduction of AAHM-Pakistan and highlighted the importance of right to food of the poor in Pakistan.
Shahbaz Bokhari, Manager Oxfam GROW, in his concluding remarks termed the event as a significant milestone with regard to right to food of the poorest in Pakistan. He said the dreams of food security and health of all would remain a farce until the necessary food items were not provided at affordable prices in the market.
Earlier, Qaiser Arafat of Oxfam introduced the GROW campaign. He said that GROW was a worldwide campaign of Oxfam which was focusing on food security, climate resilience and empowerment of small holders and landless farmers. In Pakistan, GROW is supporting AAHM-Pakistan and all other alliances to eliminate hunger and malnutrition from the country.
