By Asem Mustafa
Ramadan is around the corner and the poor in the land of pure held hostage by mafia is bracing for the unprecedented loot that will be in the sacred month where people amass illegal gains that last them for the remaining 11 months of the year and papers mention suicide details of commoners who ended their lives as they couldn’t buy new clothes for their kids.
Hoarding is a criminal offence and has been explained in Hadeeth and in the law and is defined explicitly but sadly with decaying morals, it has only remained in the book of the law and never implemented. Pakistan boundaries that start outside Islamabad is left at the mercy of the hoarders who will do all to fleece the last drop of blood from the poor commoner and in Ramadan its at its peak with no cheap markets in sight.
The Pakistan in Islamabad has Price Control Committees while real Pakistan that starts outside Islamabad has no such thing and masses have been left at the mercy of retailers who make the loot with both hands.
The government which claims to deal with all issues with iron hands has failed miserably to provide relief to the commoner and the latest in the week is over 400 being treated for water contamination with 9 dead so far as of Sundays newspapers in Karachi.
The year 2008 is projected to give clean drinking water to 80 per cent of the population that has no access to that facility which is the lifeline for millions.
The situation is so gross that promised utility stores that are a little over 300 and are state owned will cater to the population a simple math can tell that if these promised 300 are divided over the total population will have half a million going in an out a day and they are buying and thinking too how much time will it take for the whole process or it simply caters to the people who have money to buy food and those who don’t well they can starve as its their fate in the land of the pure.
An agriculture based country with over 70 per cent population associated with it, the failure from the government side that the 60 per cent of the total irrigational land is not fit for plantation and nothing has been done from the experiences of the world that had taken advantage of the green revolution. Other countries in order to be self sufficient in at least food worked on it and had little pride as ‘no begging for food’.
The incapacity at home front can be gauged from the fact that as few miles from Pakistan in India the Punjab state in India is sending potatoes, tomatoes, onion, garlic and other common and daily use vegetables, while the Punjab at home in heart of Pakistan is not producing these common vegetables for its own consumer market. Something is wrong somewhere and where it happens nobody cares to address the issue.
The difference in prices is so much that Indian meat (halal and haram is not confirmed) is sold for Rs 80 in Karachi while local meat is sold for Rs 120 in Lahore.
Three per cent of elite control the land that is nearly 45 per cent of the land and these feudals are the ones who directly or indirectly control the commoners as its from their lands the produce goes to market as they are the people who control the wholesalers and they in turn control the price factor for the commoner.
The ordinary farmer has nothing much left after the crop and it has loans to pay and the crop most of the time doesn’t yield profit as its said people who cheat their land doesn’t bear crop and its evident from the fact that ordinary vegetables are being imported from India.
The budget this year was a record one with figures, it however, never mentioned what it did for the poor and newspapers carried reports of nearly two dozen Committing Suicides at the hands of hunger the same day.
That is one side of the story as what is actually happening in the entire length and breadth of the country, with Masses that are suffering from growing price hike which is all due to fuel price that is raised after every two weeks.
Six years the fuel that was at Rs 26 is now standing at Rs 53 needless to say that the working class was never given the increase in pay with that and masses were left at the mercy of looters.
Corruption rampant in all segments of society especially in public institutions has made people to cut, coerce and all that is not allowed by the law to make their ends meets and they feed on their own as there is but no option.
Take any sector the tales of corruption added with the woeful tales of people suffering from it are countless as its has become a culture that no one can avoid as in to get things done.
The leaders as in representatives of the masses have tales that have put their constituency to shame, last month report in Press mentioned the ministers of the Government who have acquired government property besides getting house rent of over 1000 dollars for their owned housing that’s amounts up to Rs 65000 and many a millions in Pakistan don’t even get Rs 65 during the day for their hard earned labour.
The masses have people committing suicides over utility bills that are of electricity and gas (they are raised after every few weeks) and are becoming unaffordable needless to say that hunger takes more lives then the bills and Eid in 45 days from now in early November will have stories of people committing suicides when they couldn’t get new clothes and even bangles for their children. People scoff at good governance and wait for the Eid in November as how many sad suicidal tales it has in its fold.
In education there were campaigns asking parents to send their kids to School and the millions of rupees spent on the advertisement could have helped thousands of children from the 5 million that work in hotels, workshops and factories as labour. They have no access to school as they are earning members of the starving family and they contribute in survival of the family that faces death, disease and hunger each day.
As of the other school going children, they can be seen of the roads with bags weighing half their body weight, hanging from buses and it’s a common sight as education in the land of the pure has always been a luxury and to date no step is taken to have a uniformed educational system that can give equal opportunity to all the children. The class difference is so much that there are schools for the elite and schools for the poor which have no facility at all and in rain there is holiday as school has no roof top and they study under the shade of a tree. How many complete education is a question which will have varying answers from all the social scientists who are unanimous in one opinion that Pakistan is a nightmare for researchers in social sector as there is very little of data.
The health sector has its own tales and any government hospital has scores of people running here and there in quest for doctors who are believed to be with healing touch but many complain that doctors 99 per cent of them in these public hospitals are next of kin to butchers and they rob people asking them to get specific drugs from specific stores and get private treatment in clinic.
The distrust from masses on all these sectors show that all is not well take water, people die of water contamination, education 5 million children working and not going to school, health well drugs have lost their efficacy and they are too expensive to be in common man's reach except wonder drug aspirin that too is not of good quality.
The nation is progressing leaps and bounds as all the top hierarchy trumpets the same old tunes and more and more fall down below the poverty line that increases with every passing day as of the price hike that grows with every hour no two shops have same rates in the same market as its as per shop owner please.
So much for good governance the masses brace for the third round of polls as what it has to offer and government has said selling of vote is criminal offence, a commoner commented,
"Government should give food and medicine for my hungry child I wont sell vote as I have no money for food or for doctor and this election is a chance for earning as I must sell it to get some food and medicine, my child dies I have no reason to live and it will be on the government that says don’t do but doesn’t tell what to do".
