RAWALPINDI, Jan 6: The right to food is the inherent right of every human on this planet, but apparently this right does not apply to the smooth supply of wheat flour, or Atta, to the people of Pakistan.

The “Universal Declaration of Human Rights” says the right to food is a universal right. It means that every person - woman, man or child - must have access at all times to food, or to means for the procurement of food, that is sufficient in quality, quantity and variety to meet their needs, is free from harmful substances and is acceptable to their culture.

A right to food approach complements food security considerations of availability, access, stability and utilisation with concerns for human dignity and cultural acceptability, and for empowerment by means of participation, non-discrimination, transparency and accountability.

This enables individuals, particularly the hungry and marginalised, to actively look for means of realisation of their right to food and to hold government accountable for food security commitments it has taken. They become subjects of legal rights instead of being objects of assistance.

Country’s affluent class can afford this commodity at any price; however, people at large from Khyber to Karachi face humiliation and disgraced treatment at utility stores, fair price shops or any prescribed outlet fixed by the government from where Atta is to be supplied against official rate irrespective of its quality or quantity.

No authority in this country from the head of the state or head of the government to a local councillor has moved to see in the electronic and print media scenes of people, including young and old women, all queuing up with money in their hands in front of trucks loaded with bags of Atta, fair price shops, utility stores and other outlets begging for a bag of the commodity.

It is below the dignity of human beings the way people react after putting the bag of Atta on their shoulders or heads with joy. These moving scenes present the reflections of the rulers and those being ruled in an Islamic country like Pakistan where generations have gone over the past 60 years while waiting for the fruits of an Islamic welfare State.

It is a common thinking that if the rulers or the government has failed to ensure the smooth supply of a single item of food to the people how it would succeed to solve issues of national interest.

The government has already failed to provide people with electricity, gas, water and of course the sense of security, and the new quarterly report of the State Bank of Pakistan has demoralised people of this country who expects more crises to born in the days to come.

On the other hand, the Food Department of Punjab has a novel way to explain the cropping up of current Atta crisis. Claiming that the crisis is now coming to an end, the department attributed the crisis to the events of post-December 27 period when country’s mainstream leader Benazir Bhutto was assassinated.

The present flour crisis was due to the fact that “many trucks and trailers got burnt to ashes; scared transporters stopped bringing their vehicles onto the roads; acts of arson resulted in a complete breakdown of fuel transportation, and petrol pumps closed down; trains got burnt; bridges destroyed, and highways and roads closed down; and the entire communication and transportation system came to a standstill.”

Public was not impressed by this costly media campaign of the food department as the atta crisis was born immediately after the moon was sighted to herald the start of Ramazan in September. The misstatement of the Punjab food department showed it had no contingency plan to face any adverse situation in the province.

Flour mills continue to make the point that the supply of wheat by the government is not upto the mark which was causing the Atta crisis. It is not the reduced supply of flour; it’s a matter of the failure of government’s policies which had put the entire nation in disarray as the single Atta crisis could not be solved in five months.

The year 2007 witnessed the bumper wheat crop and the government of Shaukat Aziz took the credit of exporting wheat which could be termed as one of the blunders of the former prime minister. The nation is now paying the price of blunders.