According to a recent Reuters report 32% of the people of Pakistan have been forced to cut back on spending on food. Now about 77 million of Pakistan's 160 million population are classed as "food insecure", a 28 per cent increase over 2007, according to figures published by the UN World Food Programme (WFP).
A poll of 1,732 people in rural and urban areas, carried out back in August, found that 56 per cent of people felt that the rising cost of food, fuel and electricity had severely impacted on their families' living standards.
Now about one third of Pakistan's population is officially classed as living in poverty. Charity organisations operating in Pakistan say that an increasing number of these poor are turning to their food centres to survive. The Sailani Welfare Trust, for example, says that every day more than 30,000 people turn up at its 25 free food centres in Karachi alone. Starvation and death are stalking the poorest sections of Pakistani society.
Pakistan was already in crisis before the present international financial meltdown started, but now things are set to get worse. Inflation is getting close to 31%; while the country's foreign reserves are falling by $1 billion a month.
The Pakistan Institute of Public Opinion (the Pakistani affiliate of Gallup International) carried out the above quoted survey and also found that "70 per cent of Pakistanis blame the food price-hike on government policies as opposed to other factors such as global price trend."
While a tiny minority of super-rich live it up, around them millions of poor are staring starvation in the face. In this situation, it is no wonder that the new President, Zardari, Benazir Bhutto's widower, and leader of the PPP, is becoming one of the most hated men in Pakistan.