The holy Islamic month of Ramadan has turned Pakistan’s worst economic crisis in decades into a battle for sheer survival as citizens die in food stampedes. Even soldiers have their supplies and salaries cut.
At least 16 people have been killed in the past few days at the country’s chaotic food-aid centres, flocked by desperate thousands. In March, consumer prices in the south Asian country skyrocketed to 35.4%, the highest since 1965. Prices of food, cooking oil, and electricity have pushed up the index.
“The way inflation is rising, I believe a famine-like situation has been simmering,” Shahida Wizarat, a Karachi-based analyst told Agence France-Presse.
So bad is the state of affairs in this nation of 220 million people that the government has had to cut food supplies to even its soldiers. “...the government is grappling to fulfil its military obligations—which is now spilling over to the logistics and essentials supply issues,” The Financial Express reported.
Running the risk of a Taliban takeover
With the country unable to feed and fund its soldiers, the threat from Taliban and other terrorist groups that operate in Pakistan has increased considerably, experts believe. The current conditions in Pakistan are similar to that of Afghanistan when the Taliban took over in 2021.
“We could see a significant weakening of the state and its capacity to impose order,” Uzair Younus, the director of the Pakistan Initiative at the Atlantic Council’s South Asia Center, told The Intercept.
For long, cash-strapped Pakistan has depended on foreign aid. However, its donors have been increasingly reluctant to bail out the country.