From: lessgovt@gmail.com   
      
   In Pakistan, Economic Crisis Mutes Ramadan Celebrations   
   By Zia ur-Rehman and Christina Goldbaum, April 17, 2023, NY Times   
   The crowds begin to form at dawn. They swell through the day as hundreds of   
   men and women swathed in bright purple and pink scarves wait outside the   
   charity’s gates in Karachi, Pakistan. Many sit for hours, desperate to   
   collect enough flour, rice,    
   sugar and cooking oil to break their daily fast for the holy month of Ramadan.   
      
   “Ramadan is for fasting, praying, and celebrating, but in Pakistan,   
   inflation has been forcing people to queue and die in stampedes to receive   
   free food,” said Muhammad Aziz, a textile worker, 52, as he waited in the   
   crowd. “It is the most    
   expensive and unaffordable Ramadan of my life.”   
      
   Across Pakistan, the season of Ramadan — a time of daily fasting and nightly   
   feasts with family — is in full swing. But this year, an economic crisis   
   that has sent the price of goods soaring to record highs has muted   
   celebrations for millions of    
   families struggling to buy the dates, rice and meat needed to break their   
   daily fast.   
      
   The South Asian nation — home to more than 230 million — is facing one of   
   the most daunting economic challenges of its history.   
      
   As Ramadan began last month, inflation was at a record 35.4% — the highest   
   in nearly five decades — according to government figures. Severe floods last   
   fall devastated much of the country’s agricultural belt, ruining wheat   
   harvests and damaging    
   farmland for what may be years to come. And because Ukraine exports essential   
   grains, the war there has further strained Pakistan’s food supply, officials   
   say.   
      
   The rising prices have stoked anger among many Pakistanis. After Prime   
   Minister Imran Khan was ousted in a vote of no confidence last year, many   
   hoped that the new government, led by Shehbaz Sharif, would bring an end to   
   the inflation that had begun    
   rising under Mr. Khan’s tenure.   
      
   Instead, the prices of necessities have continued to soar as the government   
   has struggled to secure a bailout from the International Monetary Fund. Some   
   critics have also blamed the government, accusing the country’s political   
   elite of being    
   preoccupied with the drama surrounding Mr. Khan’s political comeback and   
   distracted from addressing the economic crisis.   
      
   “Pakistan’s ruling elite has failed in providing relief to the people, and   
   nothing will be able to prevent the wrath of the latter from falling on the   
   former in the weeks and months to come,” said Uzair Younus, the director of   
   the Pakistan    
   Initiative at the Atlantic Council. “This is a confluence of economic,   
   political and security crises in Pakistan, and should be viewed as the most   
   serious threat to the country’s cohesion since 1971.”   
      
   The economic desperation among Pakistanis has played out in stark scenes   
   across the country during Ramadan. Since the holiday began nearly a month ago,   
   at least 22 people have been killed and dozens injured in stampedes and long   
   queues as people struggle    
   to get some of the food being distributed across the country by charities and   
   the government.   
      
   In one of the most devastating episodes, 11 women and children died last month   
   in a crowd crush after hundreds had gathered outside a factory in hopes of   
   getting a 10-kilo bag of flour and $3.50 in cash from a local philanthropist.   
      
   Even charities are struggling.   
      
   It is during Ramadan that many Pakistanis donate their religiously prescribed   
   yearly zakat, or alms, often giving them to charitable organizations that   
   prepare ration packets for distribution among the poor. But this year,   
   skyrocketing prices and the    
   crunch on donor’s incomes have left the charities with less to distribute.   
      
   “This Ramadan, the volume of rations bags supply has drastically declined,   
   mainly because of a decrease in donations, while the number of the destitute   
   people approaching us has significantly increased,” said Shakeel Dehalvi, an   
   official at the    
   Alamgir Welfare Trust, a leading charity in Karachi.   
      
   Those unable to receive charity have bought what they can. In Khyber   
   Pakhtunkhwa, a province that borders Afghanistan, the price of flour has more   
   than doubled since the beginning of last year.   
      
   In recent years, Pakistan had been importing wheat from Ukraine to meet the   
   needs of the province, home to 18% of the country’s population. But with   
   that supply disrupted by war, Russia is now the top exporter of wheat to the   
   country.   
      
   The government has started an initiative to provide subsidized flour during   
   Ramadan and set up distribution points for donated flour. But in Khyber   
   Pakhtunkhwa, mismanagement and overcrowding have plagued these efforts,   
   according to local officials.   
      
   Thousands of destitute people rush daily to the distribution points, but many   
   return empty-handed in the evening because there are not enough bags of flour   
   to meet the soaring demand. In Peshawar and other major cities in Khyber   
   Pakhtunkhwa province, the    
   police regularly fire tear gas and charge the crowds with batons to disperse   
   them. In some areas, enraged mobs have set upon trucks full of flour bags.   
      
   One recent afternoon, Ashraf Mohmand, a 34-year-old daily-wage construction   
   laborer, stood anxiously outside a government distribution point in Peshawar.   
   He said he had not received a single bag of flour, despite waiting in long   
   lines for the past two    
   days.   
      
   “I make just $3 a day — too little to even feed my three children,” Mr.   
   Mohmand said.   
      
   Rising costs have only added to his frustration with a government he hoped   
   would turn the economy around after it came to power last April.   
      
   “Shehbaz  Sharif has proved himself worse  than Imran Khan,” Mr. Mohmand   
   said. “Everything costs double what it did last year.”   
      
   Government officials have rejected such criticism.   
      
   This month, Ahsan Iqbal, a federal minister, said the new government had been   
   successful “not only in facing the climate disaster” that caused $30   
   billion in damage and economic losses last year but also in moving the country   
   toward gradual    
   stabilization despite the previous government’s “failed economic   
   policies.”   
      
   Still, in recent months the government has struggled to meet the terms of a   
   2019 deal with the I.M.F. worth $6.5 billion and unlock a portion of those   
   funds that have been stalled since November.   
      
   Economists say the government is in an almost impossible position.   
      
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)