Islamabad: Food and fuel prices in Pakistan, already on the rise before the Ukraine war began, have skyrocketed over the past year. The price of a kilo of flour has risen from 58 to 155 rupees (45p) since the start of 2022. Rice has more than doubled, while petrol has gone from 145 rupees a litre last year to 272 rupees now. This is compounded by record inflation rates – surging in February to 31.5%, the highest in half a century.
Without any income, many households are depending on the charity to survive. There is a crowd outside the Khana Ghar food kitchen. “Every second day of Ramadan we give one-month’s food rations because we close our kitchen,” says Parveen Saeed.
“But we can only give one bag to one family, and we need their ID cards to check that, says Parveen, 63. “There are more and more mouths to feed than we can cope with.” Parveen, who started Khana Ghar 22 years ago said. Parveen has been operating the kitchen in one of Karachi’s poorer districts for more than 20 years, and says she has never known it to be so busy. Pakistan is experiencing a series of crises that is pushing people to the brink.
The World Food Programme predicts 5.1 million Pakistanis will be facing severe hunger by next week – an increase of 1.1 million people from the previous quarter. In Karachi, Pakistan’s largest city, the problems have brought long queues at food banks. Ahmed Edhi, from the Edhi Foundation, which has provided free meals for more than 40 years, says he is seeing “well-dressed men from offices” coming to the city’s centres.
Pakistan’s political turmoil has diverted attention away from such daily issues. “Sadly, there is no conversation, no debate within political circles about how the daily wage-earner is feeding his family at a time when the prices of food have skyrocketed,” says Fawad Chaudhry, a minister in the previous Tehreek e Insaf government of Imran Khan.