Pakistan is crumbling

Stampedes for subsidised government-distributed flour, the worst economic crisis in decades, a coalition government unsure of its moorings and reluctant to carry out much-needed economic reforms, sectarian and separatist violence across large spans of the country, terrorist groups, diplomatic and ideological problems with neighbouring Afghanistan, and some of the worst floods the country has ever experienced – disaster has gripped Pakistan.

On January 7, Harsingh Kohli, a labourer and a father of six, was trampled to death while trying to get subsidised flour at the Gulistan e Baldia park in the city of Mirpur Khas in Pakistan’s Sindh province. The trucks had been sent by the government with flour at a subsidised rate of Rs 65 per kilo when the retail price is around Rs 150. The crowds, already infuriated by the food crisis, were incensed by Kohli’s death. They took his body into the street to protest the situation.