JUST when low- and middle-income Pakistani households are scrambling to adjust their lives to the constantly rising cost of living, thanks to skyrocketing price inflation, consumers again find themselves contending with wheat flour shortages in parts of the country, as production and delivery in the market slow down. In Sindh, flour millers were reported to have suspended production because of a dispute over what they say are inadequate supplies of wheat to the mills and the flour rate, spawning fears that the markets will run out of the commodity over the next couple of days. The provincial government is blaming the mill owners for hoarding subsidised wheat supplied from its stock and is sealing some factories. The millers have also arbitrarily hiked rates by almost a quarter to Rs130 a kilo, pleading that wheat prices had surged in the market. In the recent past, we have seen the wheat flour crisis erupt and worsen across Pakistan multiple times owing to bureaucratic incompetence and mismanagement of the market and in spite of sufficient local and imported stocks. This has often led citizens to queue up for hours on end and fight among themselves for subsidised flour. Earlier, at least one person died in Mirpurkhas, Sindh, in a stampede at the sale point of subsidised flour stocks.

It is a shame that Pakistan, which for many years was not only self-sufficient in wheat but also supplied the cereal to the World Food Programme for helping countries facing famine, is now forced to import the commodity, and yet is unable to adequately feed its 220m people. The food prices that surged by nearly 42pc in the urban areas and by 47pc in the rural areas last month have already limited the access of low-income groups to this and other food items. The shortages just make their lives worse. In a highly inflationary environment with food prices soaring on a daily basis, because of the steep currency depreciation and a hike in indirect taxes, it is the duty of both the provincial and federal governments to ensure that artificial shortages created by unscrupulous elements do not curtail access of the people, especially the poor and vulnerable segments of the population, to basic and essential foods. Failure to do so can have dire consequences and expose a large portion of the population to severe hunger.

Published in Dawn, March 4th, 2023