Islamabad, Sep 1 (DPA) Muslims around the world believe Ramadan is a period during which the doors of heaven are opened and blessings shower down in abundance, but many in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan feel the opposite.
Days before the month started, the hoarders, profiteers and cartels of factory owners suddenly increased prices of food items by creating an artificial shortage, causing more suffering to a nation that has been hit hard by a weak economy in recent years, mainly because of rising Islamic militancy.
Prices of staples, meat, milk, cooking oil and sugar shot up on the first day of Ramadan, increasing between 30 and 40 percent from the previous week.
“These traders are just like thieves and robbers,” said housewife Hina Jamil, as she bought fruit from a shop in Islamabad. “They first create an artificial shortage of commodities and then increase their prices.
“Where is the spirit of Ramadan during which one learns to control one’s desires, but these hoarders and profiteers have so much lust for money?” she wondered.
Another shopper, college lecturer Shahab Ahmad, said it was becoming difficult for people to have a single proper meal these days.
“You know only few years back our table was full of several traditional dishes when we broke the fast, but now we can afford only a few things: a couple of dates, glass of water and one or two pakoras (a fried snack made with flour, onions and potatoes),” Ahmad said.
Long queues of men and women waiting in the scorching heat for hours, to buy a bag of subsidised flour from government-operated mobile outlets in almost every small or big city, is an indication of the tight budgets of poor and lower middle-class families.
Inflation has skyrocketed since 2007, reaching a monthly high of 25 percent last August, when the country’s economy started to melt down amid dozens of suicide bombings carried out by Al Qaeda and Taliban-linked groups operating from ungoverned tribal regions along the Afghan border.
In late 2008, the country of more than 160 million people reached out to the International Monetary Fund to avoid default on its external payments.
Since then, the global lender has approved more than $11.3 billion for cash-strapped Pakistan, but at a price which has far-reaching effects for low-income families.
To meet the conditions set by the IMF, the government increased the prices of natural gas and electricity – a bitter pill for many families that live on the verge of poverty, earning barely little more than three dollars a day.
“In the past we would put aside some money for Ramadan but it was impossible this year because of the high utility bills, and now comes an increase in food prices,” policeman Mukhtar Ahmad said, adding that the government was doing little to control “greedy profiteers”.
The government says it can exert little influence on the market forces in a liberal economy where the demand and supply equation and competition ideally determines the prices.
Critics blame corrupt politicians and rulers for willingly allowing the traders and factory owners to manipulate market forces, reducing the benefits that truly competitive markets deliver to consumers.
Last month, almost every sugar mill suddenly stopped selling its stocks, apparently to create an artificial supply shortage that resulted in a more than 100 percent increase in prices, from 28 rupees (around 35 cents) to 60 rupees (around $0.75) per kg.
“Most of the sugar mill owners are either politicians or their close relatives and many of them are in government, so there was little effort by the authorities to break their cartel,” economist Qaisar Bengali said.
The high costs of food during Ramadan means much of the public is left with little means to celebrate the Eid ul-Fitr festival at the end of the month.
Last year, a drastic decrease in Eid shopping was noted, about half of what was spent in 2007, said one shopkeeper at Raja Bazaar in Rawalpindi, a city of more than 3 million people near the capital.
“I can hardly feed my five children, wife and parents. How can I buy new clothes and shoes for them?” sighed Mohammad Bux, a labourer whose daily wage is about $3.50.
“Nowadays the blessings of this month are only for the rich, the hoarders and the profiteers,” he said.
