The Pakistani Spectator

When the stomach is empty, humans cannot even think straight. Hunger is unbearable for anyone anywhere. When people of Pakistan see their children crying due to shortage of food, they just go out of their minds and start looting and plundering and torching the offices of government, which cannot provide them basic necessities of life, rather they are the symbol of arrogance, apathy and corruption.

The forgotten puppet of General ® Pervez Musharraf, former Prime Minister, and Shaukat Aziz was once very proud of his damned “Bumper Crop” of wheat. With whopping 22.5 million tons, he made us certain that now for at least 2007-08; “atta” will be available like dust. It proved to be a gold dust in the end, and now people of Pakistan are frantically roaming the streets and pleading the shopkeepers for the flour.

The spineless flour mills owners, hoarders and profiteers are once cashing in on the misery of the people, and selling the flour above Rs. 30 per kg. What happened to that record bumper crop? Either it was yet another state lie, or it was exaggerated just to boost the image of regime, or the estimate was wrong from our learned bureaucrats, or something fishy happened along the way.

I don’t demand the formation of any commission or inquiry committee which could look into this matter and resolve the mysterious scam of the bumper crop and the following flour crisis, because nothing has been proved in fatherland and nothing is going to prove in the near future. Due to the lesser rains this year, and increasing populations, price hike in the fertilizers, and the mounting corruption and this new trend of mass hoarding, 2008 look bleaker than the last year.

In a nutshell, the government is not able to meet its social commitments or economic promises.