December 6-7, Nairobi, Kenya
Wali Haider, Farmers Major Group

Across Asia Pacific, civic space is undergoing one of the most significant collapses in recent decades. What we are witnessing is not only the silencing of activists, journalists, workers, students, women, and Indigenous communities, but the emergence of a deliberate architecture of control that fuses national authoritarianism with global power structures. States across the region are tightening their grip through restrictive laws, expanded surveillance, and the criminalization of dissent, yet these national actions are inseparable from international economic pressures, geopolitical alliances, and the interests of powerful corporations and development finance institutions. The repression that suffocates democratic expression in Asia shares its foundations with the structures that enable the ongoing violent suppression of Palestinians. These are not parallel crises; they are interconnected symptoms of a global order that rewards obedience and punishes resistance.

In many countries, civic space is being restricted through tactics like: anti-terror and security laws used to detain those who speak out, digital identification systems that centralize state power, and internet shutdowns deployed during moments of political tension. Facial recognition and AI-enabled monitoring follow people into the streets and even into their personal digital spaces. Protest movements, community organizing, and student mobilizations are met with both force and sophisticated digital repression. Governments describe these measures as essential for “stability” and “development,” but their real function is to shield political elites, security establishments, and multinational corporate partners from accountability.

This authoritarian turn is not only maintained through force; it is reproduced through economic governance. Structural adjustment programs, austerity measures, and trade agreements imposed by global financial institutions create forms of repression that are less visible but equally devastating. IMF conditionalities erode social protection systems, push up fuel and food prices, deregulate labor markets, and privatize public goods. These policies leave millions struggling to survive, reducing their capacity to mobilize or challenge injustice. Trade regimes and investment protections disempower workers and farmers while strengthening corporations, making collective action more difficult. Meanwhile, development banks push mega-infrastructure projects that displace rural and Indigenous communities, whose opposition is often met with militarization and criminalization to protect the interests of investors. In this sense, austerity and debt are not simply economic policies; they are quiet instruments of political control.

The shrinking of civic space is deeply felt in Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Myanmar, Cambodia, Philippines, Palestine and many more countries including in the Pacific where communities across the country describe increasing pressure on public expression and organizing. Farmers resisting corporate seed regimes, water grabbing, or land acquisitions often confront both surveillance and intimidation. Women human rights defenders experience coordinated online harassment that spills into offline threats. Journalists reporting from rural areas, especially on land issues, local corruption, or corporate extraction face severe risks. Civil society organizations face arbitrary financial restrictions, red tagged and branded and labeled “anti-national,” placing them at risk of violence or extrajudicial killings.

This dynamic extends into multilateral spaces including the UN, where the voices of civil society especially grassroots, Indigenous, youth, women’s, and rural groups are increasingly marginalized. Financial support for participation has dwindled, while visa barriers, high travel costs, and restrictive accreditation procedures further limit access. Meanwhile, governments, corporations, and powerful institutions face few limitations, shaping agendas and influencing policy outcomes with ease. The exclusion of civil society from global platforms is not accidental; it serves to reproduce the inequalities and power hierarchies that define the broader geopolitical order.

The repression of civic space across Asia reflects a global system that normalizes authoritarianism as long as it aligns with strategic and economic interests. From Gaza to Kashmir, from Manila to Karachi, the pattern is clear: democratic participation is tolerated only when it does not threaten entrenched power. Global power brokers states, corporations, and finance institutions are not neutral arbiters of “stability”; they are architects of dispossession, profiting from the silencing and starvation of dissent. When multilateral forums reproduce the same extractive hierarchies they claim to solve, their language of “development” becomes a smokescreen for theft, violence, and impunity.

We will not be pacified by platitudes: expose the collaborators, strip power from profiteers of repression, and return voice, land, and dignity to the people.

When people are united will never be defeated!

From River to the sea Palestine will be free – Free Palestine

For the past several years, Pakistan Kissan Mazdoor Tehreek (PKMT), in collaboration with other peasant and anti-imperialist movements, the Roots for Equity, Asian Peasant Coalition (APC), People’s Coalition on Food Sovereignty (PCFS), Pesticide Action Network Asia Pacific (PAN AP), and the International League of Peoples’ Struggle (ILPS), has been celebrating March 29th as the International Day of Landless People. The aim of commemorating this day is to highlight the struggles of small and landless peasants for food sovereignty and genuine agrarian reforms worldwide. It also includes exposing the oppression, coercion, and exploitation by multinational corporations and the imperialist countries representing them, as well as the governments of Third World countries.

Currently, the world, especially Pakistan, is in the grip of a severe economic and environmental crisis. Millions of people, especially the working class, are suffering from extreme poverty, unemployment, and hunger. Even in such a dire conditions, imperialist countries, especially the United States continue to worsen the situation through institutions such as the IMF, World Bank, and WTO. At the same time, they are pushing the situation further downwards. Simultaneously, they are engaged in environmental destruction, looting, and occupying land, water, oceans, forests, minerals, and other natural resources through war and militarization. The Zionist Israel’s genocide of Palestinian people and occupation of Palestinian land at the behest of the U.S. is one such example.

The people of Pakistan, particularly rural communities, are victims of these conditions. In Mansehra and other districts, local populations are being denied access to forests. In Peshawar, land is being taken from local communities under the guise of development projects. In the name of “Green Initiatives,” thousands of acres of land in Punjab and Sindh have been allocated for corporate agriculture. The path has already been paved for multinational corporations to take over the dairy and livestock sector, which includes banning open and fresh milk and promoting companies’ packaged milk. Additionally, genetically modified seeds are being promoted, which guarantee huge profits for seed giant companies. Similarly, huge corporations like PepsiCo have been given thousands of acres of land to produce potatoes, displacing small and landless farmers who are now forced to work as low-wage laborers. The potato seed on this land is owned by the corporation itself.

The digitalization of the food system, exemplified by the “Kissan Card”, represents a dangerous shift toward free market policies, allowing not only agrochemical corporations but also to financial and IT corporations to take over agriculture production.

The increase in sugarcane production is a serious concern since it has pushed landless peasants into the throes of severe hunger and poverty. It also been used for agro-fuel production as a false solution to climate change.  Due to the cultivation of sugarcane, important food crops like wheat are being greatly affected. The profit driven motives of corporations and imperialist agents are fully supported by the feudal class of the country.

The people, already struggling for survival, and now the ruling elite has announced the construction of six new canals from the Indus River. The province of Sindh, especially Lower Sindh, is already a victim of un-just water distribution; the construction of the newly announced canal will further aggravate the situation, leading to large-scale protests against it.

Another grim development for the people suffering from hunger and landlessness is the federal government’s decision to abolish the minimum support price of wheat for 2024-2025 under the IMF conditionality. This policy will be devastating for small and landless farmers. Many farmers argue that even the previous year’s support prices set by the government were insufficient to cover their cost of production, but now handing over the price determination to the free market will break their backs. Turning a blind eye to these extremely negative impacts on millions of farmers is another ruthless policy.

It is evident that the government is implementing neo-liberal policies instead of protecting the interests of farmers, especially small and landless farmers, agricultural workers, fisherfolk, rural women, youth, and children. This has resulted in mass destruction of the working class.

PKMT remains firmly committed to fight for the rights of small and landless peasants and the working class. We will continue the struggle for food sovereignty, advocating for just and equitable distribution of land while ensuring the right to save and plant local and indigenous seeds, rejecting corporate control in food and agriculture. We stand in solidarity with the working class and will expose feudal, capitalist, and corporate land grab while promoting systems that empower local communities to control and manage land, forests, mountains, seas, and other natural resources.

Release by: Pakistan Kissan Mazdoor Tehreek (PKMT)

We, peasants, farmers, farmworkers, Indigenous Peoples, fisherfolk, pastoralists, herders, rural women, rural youth and children, along with our organizations, coalitions, networks, and allies in civil society organizations, reaffirm the anti-imperialist position and the centrality of the peasant struggle for land, food, and justice in achieving sustainable agriculture and food for all. 

We recognize that the clear onslaught of imperialism in its many forms in the Global South, has caused immense poverty, hunger, has displaced millions of rural poor from their homes and communities, and has impeded their development as nations.  

We register our collective objection and resistance to US-led wars and militarism; its expanding corporate and private capture of the world’s resources such as lands and waters, and; the co-optation of climate-recovery solutions for data-mining, data-management, and appropriating resources for such. 

We oppose the US-backed Israel’s genocidal war against the Palestinians, Lebanese, Syrians, and Yemenis that continues to expand especially in Gaza despite reaching ceasefire agreements. And we decry its pivot to Asia Pacific, priming the region for war against China with ally states by building its military bases, clinching security agreements and military partnerships that embolden “counter-insurgency” programs, and holding big war exercises. 

We reiterate that imperialist expansion and capture of communities and food systems facilitated through technology, greenwashing, and supposed “carbon-offsetting” practices put market interest first before genuine development. The infrastructure needed for these  so-called “sustainable” and “smarter alternatives” displace  peasants and the rural poor from their land, uses up water resources and critical minerals needed by countries to build industries for their own development. These so-called “green-technologies” are not just directly involved in land grabbing and appropriating prime agricultural lands, forests and Indigenous Peoples’ sacred mountains for commercial and private use, they also rob our people of the right to development and the right to self-determination.  

We condemn governments’ sweeping neoliberal programs that convert land from sites of self-sustaining food production to serving corporate agricultural demand for profit that not only disrupt established farming practices but also displace and further marginalize underserved communities. 

We highlight the cases of rural people fleeing their homes and farms due to militarization in the countryside and how this is precisely coordinated with counterinsurgency campaigns by governments to inhibit peoples’ political expressions. Making use of advanced technology including its massive data gathering to surveil those engaged in agricultural-based labor, governments and its favored giant corporations collaborate in militarizing rural areas that help facilitate land grabs for so-called green projects, mining of critical minerals, and the corporate capture of food systems. It is clear that military expansion and agricultural digitalization go hand-in-hand in rationalizing the profit-driven production rather than collective nutrition and national development.

We clarify our position for technological advancements that genuinely uplift peoples’ lives and fairly distribute the fruit of peoples labor rather than prioritize private profit and becoming a subsidiary market for weapons development for war and mass coercion. In this case, war has even come to weaponize hunger itself. The technological developments of the latter kind must be clearly revealed as destructive, exploitative, and severely damaging to both the people and the environment. 

And lastly, we push and call for international solidarity of rural peoples and peasants with progressive pro-farmers organizations in the Global North to build and strengthen a broad resistance to the corporate driven climate crisis which is being packaged today to push for neoliberal reforms at the state level, as well as to the wars and militarism that ravage rural communities in the Global South. 

In this year’s Day of the Landless, we, the undersigned, reaffirm our commitment to arousing, organizing and mobilizing our ranks and the broad peasant masses as a formidable force against imperialism. Only through our collective efforts and action can we achieve just demands for land, food and justice. 

Our calls: 

Peasants rise for land!

Intensify peasant struggle against imperialist plunder, war and militarism!

Assert our rights to our resources!

Reclaim our food systems! 

#DOTL2025

The month is marked by many critical happenings pertaining to political economy of agriculture. The issue of wheat importation as well as lack of wheat procurement from farmers, which had also been discussed in the previous issue, deserves further attention.

Many aspects of the wheat fiasco are worth highlighting. First, that the shortfall in the amount of wheat needed for the country’s consumption need not have been addressed through private sector importing wheat. According to data released, 2.45 million-ton of wheat shortage was expected for the 2023-24 period; however, an excess of 1.162 million tons of wheat was imported in FY24. The government prices of wheat in the market were higher and the private sector was selling at a lower price. Reports point to the Punjab government that had knowingly kept wheat release rate higher than the private sector, due to which flour mills preferred to purchase Ukrainian wheat imported by the private sector. According to the Pakistan Kisan Itehad, based on lower prices of imported wheat, the local wheat prices fell to PKR 2,800-3,000 per 40kg against the government rate of PKR 3,900.

The question is even if internationally wheat prices were lower, the state is responsible for shielding farmers’ livelihood. If wheat crop is not protected from the private sector, it will have a devastating impact on farmers income, as well as grave consequences in terms of ensuring country’s food security.

There are a total of 65 wheat importers in the country (of which 17 are flour mills who also import wheat), with Louis Dreyfus and United Resources Corporation, being the two major importers. The Plant Protection Agency had issued about 1,000 permits to wheat importers. The role of the caretaker government, and their collusion with the private sector in importing wheat has been highlighted.

Apart from the import of wheat worth PKR330 billion (of which 1.3 million metric tons was reported to be infected), there is also further collaboration of the government with the market actors, where PASSCO officials are being accused of selling the bardana (gunny bags) to traders, politicians and middlemen, allowing them to gain profit by procuring wheat at the subsidized rates set for farmers.

In the coming years, there seem to be clear developments for further strengthening of the private sector. According to news reports, the Punjab food department has decided to withdraw from its practice of wheat procurement, and it will become a law bringing an end to the food department’s role in wheat procurement. Further, according to the new policy the private sector will purchase wheat crop from farmers, directly; the government will fix wheat prices based on international prices of the commodity.

Another pertinent issue with respect to wheat production and country’s food security includes the rapid urbanization that is occurring based on ‘flagrant violations of the law’ in acquiring agricultural land. According to a report by Advocate General Punjab Khalid Ishaq, “Pakistan was a leading South Asian exporter of wheat. This trend has reversed in recent years, and it is reported that Pakistan (government and private sector combined) imported wheat amounting to USD 1 billion during July-March for FY2024.” The loss of agricultural land coupled with consistent damage and destruction of agriculture production due to climate crisis, is bound to increase food insecurity in the country.

Humanitarians?

The World Wide Fund (WWF) and Laudes Foundation have launched the ‘Regenerative Production Landscape Collaborative Pakistan’ initiative. The aim is to ‘revolutionize farming practices,’ and business models to address challenges faced by small farmers, especially women. Apart from increasing women’s income, the project will also be a implementing process that can overcome environmental degradation.

Anita Chester, Head of the Fashion Programme at Laudes Foundation has emphasized the “the initiative’s significant scale, spanning over a million hectares globally and benefiting hundreds of thousands of farmers, with specific plans to cover over 100,000 hectares and assist more than 50,000 farmers in Pakistan alone.”

Laudes Foundation is run by Brenninkmeijer, a European business family. According to an article in the Forbes business magazine, the Dutch retailer C&A Brenninkmeijer is considered one of the most secretive companies in the world. It has a sprawling business with 2,005 stores in 23 countries including the Americas and Asia.

One can only be skeptical of mega-corporations in investing in Pakistan, under the guise of overcoming environmental degradation as well as guarding interests of women workers; it is unfortunate that the plight of women in Pakistan is frequently used to launch projects that are meant for profit rather than promoting and protecting women’s rights. The profit-seeking interest of corporations is well known, and without any doubt, they are major actors responsible for the immense destruction of the planet, and carbon emissions that are responsible for the debilitating climate crisis.

The US AID has been putting funds into clean energy solutions. The Investment Roadshow is aimed to promote private sector investment for sustainable and clean energy solutions. It is noteworthy that at another USAID workshop, the dairy methane emission reduction, the US Ambassador remarked on Pakistan being home to ‘one of the largest livestock populations in the world,’ and hence its role in bringing down carbon emissions. It is indeed quite a brazen statement, given that the US total emissions in 2021 were 13.49%, whereas Pakistan’s total emissions are just 0.9%. Livestock is a key contributor to not only national wealth, but also a source of livelihood to millions of rural households, not to mention its contribution to food and nutrition to all citizens of the country. It is such interventions that raise concerns about the well wishes of those investing in the country.

One should also mention that the European Union has also launched two flagship programs for skills development and clean energy in Gilgit-Baltistan. It is indeed remarkable that highly industrialized capitalist regions, who are not only responsible currently but through centuries of dangerous carbon emissions, are so focused on promoting ‘clean energy solutions’ in our country. The impact of climate crisis has continued to be devastating for Pakistan’s economy as well as its people: the heatwave in Sindh has been devastating with temperatures as high as 44- 51°C. In Khyber Pakhtunkwa, school hours were reduced to deal with the heat wave, while people suffering from it flocked to the hospitals.

The Unholy Mantras – privatization, digitalization, liberalization

Pakistan’s development model seems to have certain constants of which of course trade liberalization and privatization are constant themes.

It is being stated that the government plans to privatise all state-owned enterprises (SOEs), except strategic entities. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, at a high-level meeting has stated that “the government would privatize all state-owned enterprises, excluding the strategic ones, regardless of their profitability or financial losses.”

Privatization and foreign direct investment seem to be top priorities at the moment. Since the launch of the Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC) last year, the Council’s name has cropped up frequently with respect to a number of trade liberalization and investment ventures. The Green Pakistan Initiative projects promoting private and public partnerships (PPP), include tourism, agriculture and livestock. Development of Keenjher Lake, Haleji Lake, Hawks Bay and Gorakh Hill Resorts into tourist spots are on the books.

In addition, the Government of Sindh is also discussing the establishment of shrimp farms/hatcheries as well as outsourcing of provincial government’s cattle farms in Rohri, Umerkot and Naukot.

The objectives of private sector investment include improving cattle breeds for milk and meat. International corporations are eager to take over the dairy and meat sector in the country. It is unfortunate that help is being extended to them for this corporate capture. The University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences (UVAS) Lahore has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Nestle Pakistan Limited for research collaboration in product innovation, reproductive biotechnology to improve dairy farms economics, livestock health & dairy animal breeding. Apart from losing indigenous breeds among livestock, the country also faces loss of much needed foreign exchange, as repatriation of profit and dividend by foreign investors has been reported to grow by 250 percent. According to the State Bank of Pakistan, foreign investors have repatriated some $887 million on account of profit and dividend during July-April of FY24 compared to $253.4 million in the same period.

The SIFC apex committee is also assuring Chinese investors for providing facilitation for investment in the mining sector. Other areas that are to be prioritized for investment include minerals, and information technology (IT). In Balochistan, a Free Zone Agriculture Industrial Park in Gwadar has been inaugurated.

In Punjab, with the help of the World Bank, digitalization of land records in Punjab are being undertaken. It seems that development is now hinged to digitalization, which is persistently emphasized in agriculture. 

Apart from the Chinese other delegations that are being entertained include those from Saudi Arabia, UAE, Japan, Azerbaijan, Qatar, and other countries.

A delegation from Saudi Arabia came on a visit to enh­ance trade ties between investors from both countries and identify trade and investment opportunities across various sectors of national economy. According to the Ministry of Commerce, “leading” Pakistani companies would collaborate with at least 30 Saudi companies across different sectors, including agriculture, mining, human resource, energy, chemicals, and maritime. Discussions were also to be held on other sectors such as IT, religious tourism, telecom, aviation, construction, water and power generation.

The fact that foreign direct investment (FDI) rose 8.1percent to $1.458 billion during July-April FY24 compared to $1.349 billion in the same period last fiscal year, is testament to the government’s preliminary success in attracting foreign investors. The biggest investor was China, with FDI at $439.3 million as compared to $604 million in the same period last year. Another important inflow was from Hong Kong, where FDI increased to $297.9 million compared to $206 million in the same period last year. Inflows from the UK and the USA were $219 million and $216 million, respectively, both of which showed an increase from last year.

Apart from attracting foreign investment to Pakistan, other schemes that provide ease of access to modern information technologies are also being floated. Kisan Card schemes have been launched in previous years; recently the IT Ministry launched the ‘CropWise Grower’ application for farmers. It should be noted that the application belongs to Syngenta, now a part of the Chinee chemical giant Sinochem, a Chinese state-owned corporation. It should be noticed that CropWise uses artificial intelligence (AI) providing image-based problem diagnosis, as well as information for all its nearest stores (called Naya Savera) selling Syngenta products. A new scheme for Kisan Card, as well as the Benazir Hari Card in Sindh are also to be launched in the coming months.

In addition, the Habib Bank Limited has also entered a partnership with Agrilift, a Pakistani company that was formed in 2021. Agrilift, according to its company information, is an AI-based platform offering crop monitoring technology. Other such enterprises include the “Bakhabar Kisan.”

Feudalism for the poor, Capitalism for the rich

On one hand, capitalist policies are being thrust across the entire production landscape, especially in agriculture, but on the other hand feudal as well as colonial policies and practices remain for controlling the vast rural population, ensuring that they remain oppressed and exploited. According to Human Rights Watch, the colonial-era Land Acquisition Act is used often to evict ‘low-income groups;’ the 1894 law is used for public land acquisition, which is then often used by government authorities for public-private partnerships, and even for private corporations. It is clear, that while new laws and policies facilitating investors and corporations are enacted regularly and rapidly, colonial laws, especially those guarding land rights of the powerful feudal forces have remained untouched, even after more than 70 years of so-called independence from British colonizers, and are used forcefully against the marginalized oppressed classes.

There is a report of an agricultural worker tortured to death by a landlord. In Pakistan, more than often criminal acts of landlords and those in power often remain outside the reach of law enforcement. The fact that land disputes remain a regular feature in our rural areas highlights the fact that feudalism remains a key feature of Pakistan’s political economy.

After all of the above endeavors of the government to carry out privatization and trade liberalization, the final impact can only be measured based on the socio-economic conditions of the people. According to a research study, conducted by the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE), the poverty rate in Pakistan over the past five years has increased from 38.6 percent to 39.5 percent. National poverty rate has reached 39.5% while in Balochistan it is 70 percent, in KP 48 percent, in Sindh at 45 percent, and in Punjab poverty rate stands at 30 percent. The report revealed that rural areas have recorded higher poverty rates than urban areas across the country, as the poverty rate in rural areas was recorded at 51%, whereas, in urban areas 17 percent.

These abysmal figures are the crux of the matter. Only when the country’s working class, its peasantry is able to reap the benefits of economic policies can it be said that the government has made people-centered decisions and policies, ridding the country of hunger, malnourishment and grinding poverty.

In 2023, according to the State of Food Security and Nutrition, World Report 2024 released by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the UN, an estimated 28.9 percent of the global population that is, 2.33 billion people were moderately or severely food insecure. This include 10.7 percent of the population – 864 million people who faced severe levels of food insecurity.

The crippling situation has not been created in just a day – it is the consistent promotion of imperialist neoliberal policies that have pushed for trade liberalization in food and agriculture, not to mention the killer conditionalities coerced by the IMF standby agreements in many parts of the world.

A significant growth, 16.8 percent has been reported in the production of wheat, cotton, and rice crops, and the sector improved its share in gross domestic production; agricultural sector growth of 6.3 percent was the highest in 19 years. The government of Pakistan continues to earn huge foreign exchange reserves, all through the back-breaking labor of peasants, a vast majority of whom include landless farmers, including women. However, it is indeed shameful that poverty rate in Pakistan has increased from 38.6 percent to 39.5 percent over the last five years, with food prices sky high, making basic food items to be beyond the reach of the poverty-stricken masses.

While the peasantry, and the urban poor face hunger and malnutrition, the government guards the interest of traders and investors such that it continues to import wheat grains from abroad, while pushing prices down for local wheat, pushing small and landless farmers in debt and bondage, left to face hunger and misery.

With more than 24 standby agreements with the IMF, the nation’s debt keeps soaring; it has increased by around Rs. 4.64 trillion in the past months. While the people of Pakistan suffer from monstrous policies protecting the imperialist and local elites, the scenario is no different in other part of the world.

The ongoing imperialist wars of aggression in occupied Palestine for the past 12 months has now spread to Lebanon, Yemen, Iraq and is fast marching toward Iran. The destruction of agricultural land in the Gaza Strip, and the West Bank knows no bounds; 70% of agricultural land being wasted through direct bombing and toxic chemicals; farmers are killed persecuted and their means of production such as water wells, trees including centuries old olive trees are deliberately destroyed; fisher folk are forbidden access to the seas. All this is part of the genocide happening in Occupied Palestine, and has been part and parcel of the US-led Zionist fascist regime for more than 7 decades.

The unchecked carbon emissions from our colonizers over many centuries has given rise to climate crisis. Globally, and particularly in Pakistan, it is starkly evident that climate change has vastly negative impact on food security especially for rural communities and a variety of climate change impacts such as floods, droughts, and hurricanes.

The solution lies in not putting the country up for sale and taking dictation from international financial institution like IMF, but for building self-reliance in food and agriculture and national industry. It is critical at this juncture that we adopt food sovereignty as the base for our food and agriculture policy; making the voice and decision making of small and landless farmers, especially women in policy development and implementing, making just and equitable land distribution a priority can help the country to break the shackle of debt and pauperization, and also help in establishing a national industry, prosperity and food security.

Release by: Pakistan Kissan Mazdoor Tehreek (PKMT)

The country is going through a period of dismal debt and economic crisis that is further worsened by the climate crisis. Government policies do not necessarily help in alleviating the dire situation. While the government had been expecting a bumper wheat crop, and directives were given for ‘good price’ for the farmers, and ensure availability of the staple crop in the market, the final result can be considered anything but successful. While the crop itself was damaged due to heavy rains in parts of Pakistan, there were bureaucratic delays in setting procurement centers in various points in Sindh, resulting in farmers selling their produce at PKR 3,500/40kg, which was much less than the government procurement price of PKR 4,000/40kg. According to another report, the procurement price set by Sindh government was at PKR 4,600/40kg.

In Punjab, farmers also voiced their dissatisfaction with the support price set by the Punjab government at PKR 3,900/40kg, which was the same as last year. According to news reports, millers and stock buyers were offering PKR 2,800/40kg as compared to the official support price of PKR 3,900/40kg.

Rich farmers’ representatives like the Sindh Abadgar Board (SAB), have rejected the price set by the Sindh government. The economic and debt crisis has led to huge price increase for agriculture inputs including chemical fertilizers, petrol and diesel, and even though with a good bumper crop, farmers suffered losses due to traders’ monopoly. Farmers in Punjab, as well as the Pakistan Business Forum also critiqued the high input prices, while also pointing out the possibility of wheat smuggling by hoarders and smugglers. Sindh Abadgar Itehad (SAI) has also accused the agriculture extension department of corruption having ‘stomached’ PKR 4 billion that had been earmarked for flood impacted farmers in 2022, and has demanded a ‘high-profile inquiry’ for misuse of public funds. Allegations against corporations have been levied for charging over-market prices for fertilizer. These allegations do have credence as an inquiry by the Com­p­­etition Commission of Pakistan (CCP) has revealed that the fertilizer sector secured a whopping subsidy on gas to the tune of Rs152 billion but never passed the benefits on to the consumers.

In addition, the supply of bardana has been curtailed and hence farmers were unable to sell wheat at government set support price. What is to come in future is clear from Balochistan government’s announment that starting from next year, it will not provide bardana to the farmers but support them to buy the bags from the market. Such measures leaves farmers wide open to market shocks, a market that is monopolized by the rich and the powerful.

Before wheat harvest had started, government had allowed the private sector to import about 3.2 million tons of wheat. Unlike the farmers, millers were happy with the government’s policy allowing wheat import by the private sector, as according to them, it has given them freedom from ‘Sindh government’s blackmailing practices.’ Whether, these allegations are true or not, there is no disputing the fact that the bulk of small farmers have suffered hugely through increased agriculture input prices as well as lack of government support in selling their harvest, and falling wheat grain prices in the market; all of these factors have combined in pushing them further into debt and increased hunger, especially landless farmers and the urban poor.

Apart from the wheat fiasco, there is general crisis in the agriculture sector. The agriculture growth target of 3.5 percent set for 2023-24, is in doldrums due to ongoing rains impacting major crops including wheat. Other Rabi crops such as mustard and canola, and gram have also suffered, though sugarcane is expected to benefit. On one hand, there is high input cost, while on the other hand, the commodity prices for major crops such as wheat, cotton and maize have dropped by 25%. The protests by the farming community seem to have been heard, but really to no avail. The final conclusion by political big wigs was that the caretaker government was at fault, as it had allowed for the import of wheat in the first place.

One can point out the fact that it is the elected government that has increased gas prices causing an increase of urea price by around PKR 1,000/bag. This step is going to impact cotton yield, as famers will not be in a position to cultivate the cotton crop to the capacity required. It is being reported that the outlook for the upcoming cotton crop is not very promising due to difficult weather conditions, irrigation water scarcity, and the sky rocketing prices for agricultural inputs. Cotton contributes more than 60 percent to the total national exports, and ultimately this further hike in production cost will result in lower cotton yields impacting industrial production.

An interesting editorial in DAWN points out the fallacy of allowing support provided to farmers on wheat production, as it diverts farmers attention from value added crops to wheat; instead of providing support to farmers on wheat production, there should be complete deregulation of the wheat economy and linking it to the global grain market.

Such policy emphasis of course comes from those who support monopoly capital, and are heedless to escalating food prices which leaves millions suffering from hunger and grinding poverty. Actors pursuing neoliberalism and free market ideology are also not bothered about the millions of small and landless farmers who have played a pivotal role in wheat production, but are unable to buy the grain for their households. It should be noted that raw food exports that continued to expand in March, with a 16.35 percent increase to $685.03 million, up from $588.76m in the same month last year, has led to high food prices for local population.

Might is Right!

For many decades now, there has been unabating pressure from international financial institutions to adopt neoliberal policies for economic growth, including in the agriculture sector. From digital agricultural loans to farmers through organizations like Karandaaz (a non-profit receiving funds from Melinda & Bill Gates, that promotes digitalization of financial services including digitalization of the tax system), to modern agriculture warehousing through Electronic Warehousing Receipt (EWR) financing, all measures that allows agricultural commodities to be traded nationally and internationally. Digital marketing is in essence for the richest segment of farmers in the agriculture economy, and marginalizes the small and landless farmers.

In the same vein, there is continued push for enabling environment for private sector investment in aquaculture value chains for national and international markets. VC Dr. Dr. Iqrar Ahmad, Vice Chair Faisalabad Agriculture University has also urged the private sector to invest in high-efficiency irrigation.

Trade liberalization in agricultural production continues, allowing corporate farming and joint ventures with other countries. According to Saudi Arabia, Saudi agriculture corporations are interested in joint ventures for improving value chains in the agriculture sector, with a lofty vision of Pakistan becoming a ‘bread basket for the kingdom’ as well as for the entire region.

Pakistan and Iran are also bolstering their trade relationship, with annual trade volume to be increased to $10 billion. The relationship has been stagnating under the impact of geopolitics directed by trade sanctions by the US on Iran. While, Pakistan is on a path to increasing trade with Iran, US and Pakistan have renewed a key framework to promote bilateral trade, the Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA).

It is indeed interesting that though free market economy seems to be the bible for international trade forcefully thrust by US and other G7 economies, but when it comes to trading with Iran, a different beat is heard. Pakistan and Iran’s bilateral trade plans, especially in context to “setting up of joint border markets, economic free zones, and new border openings”, is raising hackles in certain quarters, The US Department of State has been warning Pakistan about trade with Iran, to the extent of sanctions that are designed for putting an end to political and economic relations with Iran. Hence a ‘free market economy’ is not really a free market economy, but hinged on dictates of those in power. No doubt, the idiom ‘might is right,’ is based on such show of political and military strength, often used by imperialist forces.

It is noteworthy that Pak­istan’s merchandise ex­­ports to United States has come down by 10.14 percent to $3.63 billion in the first eight months of the current fiscal year from $4.04 billion over the corresponding period last year. At the same time, Pakistan’s exports to China increased by 42 percent; it has increased to $1.895 billion in July-February FY24 from $1.334 billion over the corresponding period last year.

According to Punjab Livestock Secretary, Masaud Anwar, Pakistan has come to terms with China for exporting dairy products to China through a state-of-the-art farm developed in Sheikhupura.

In short, there is a continued shift in Pakistan’s trade pattern, where it is now trading more and more within the region; whether this trend will continue in the long term is yet to be determined.

At the same time, the role of the Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC) in attracting investors to Pakistan remains central. Investors from UAE, Saudi Arabia continue to be in dialogue with Ministry for Finance and Revenue. At the same time, there is also invitation to Australia and France for investing in the country.

Climate Imperialism?

There is no doubt that Pakistan is facing diabolical damages based on climate change. Though the government bureaucracy is accepting the fact, and at least making speeches for addressing the issue, the context of putting the blame for this havoc on western industrialized nations carbon emissions seems to be lacking. According to the Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah, climate change impact was emerging in shape of water scarcity and could be addressed through introducing new cropping patterns that includes low delta crops aimed at reducing water consumption and increasing efficiency in agriculture. Mitigations could also be carried out by introducing agricultural water conservation practices that could also include drip irrigation, sprinkle system, dry farming, conservation tillage and other methods.

Given the extreme dearth of water resources in the country, it is worth pointing out that Coca-Cola, a corporation that faces not only boycott but is also responsible for using up extensive water reserves has invested $22 million in the beverage sector, specifically in technology upgrade, capacity enhancement of its export potential, and employment for over half a million local professionals along its chain.

In the end, the focus is on imported technology, and promotion of the same model of industrial development which is responsible for the catastrophic climate crisis. Our policy makers are blind to the rich source of local and indigenous knowledge embedded in our communities; the fact that the immense wealth generated by the agriculture sector is hinged on the immensely powerful productive force of small and landless farmers is totally ignored.

At the same time, the failure of government bureaucracy is abysmal. For instance, the Sindh Chief Secretary has acknowledged before the Sindh High Court that the timelines for implementation of Supreme Court-appointed water commission could not be met. There were still 769 points from where different departments had been releasing waste into freshwater bodies. Such negligence in context to water sources is criminal lack of accountability seems to be the order of the day.

After decades of pursuing a free-market economy the economic strength of the country, and social condition of the Pakistani population, especially rural communities, the low-income urban masses continues to deteriorate. There is no doubt that the austere economic policies dictated by the international financial organizations are for the benefit of corporations and investors, not for the people. What is the way out is a question which need to be asked and answers sought.

Much of the world’s population is still the rural productive class–encompassing farmers, rural women and youth, agricultural workers, fisherfolk, indigenous peoples, and rural-semi proletariats. They are the most peripheralized social sector by imperialism who are subject to grave inhumane living conditions, facing the joint onslaught of feudalism and corporate capture. At the front of which is US imperialism and its increasingly violent, extremely militarized, aggressive maneuvers across the globe that cuts through economics, geopolitics, and mass media and culture, advocating for US “democracy” characterized by free market rhetoric. 

Three main factors under the banner of US imperialism directly afflict the peasantry: (1) imperialist plunder and exploitation marked by monopolization of land, waters, and productive resources such as seeds, farm inputs, agricultural technology, markets, and entire chains of food systems; (2) erosion and curtailment of their democratic rights, especially in the face of struggle for peasant and indigenous rights, the states’ responses (represented by indigenous collaborators and the ruling local elites) are on-ground violent and fascistic maneuvers against the rural masses completely subservient to the interests of imperialist expansion, and; (3) imperialist wars and aggression, the hall mark of course being the most heinous crimes against humanity in the 21st century being carried out in occupied Palestine whose people remain victimized by the US and the Zionist entity’s genocidal war. Climate imperialism crops up as an urgent dimension of wars, affecting global food systems, conditions of production, and human life.

So long as the peasantry is displaced and forcibly separated from their means of production–land and waters–which are both economically and symbolically linked to rural well-being and development, the rural folk is pushed to poverty, hunger, and social-, political-, and economic-marginalization. Rural communities are the most vulnerable sector to both outbreaks of bourgeois state wars as well as the assault of natural calamities. As direct producers of the world’s food and reproducers of necessary labor power, the whole of humanity has a stake in the peasants’ primary struggle for land, a struggle that will also determine just and lasting peace, social justice, and a genuinely democratic world system. 

The profit-driven model perpetuated by big imperialist powers is unsustainable, exploitative, oppressive, and responsible for the grinding poverty of the working class. Amassing wealth is hinged to overproduction, hunger wages, and joblessness. In the semi-feudal, semi-colonial countries, the collusion between the comprador class and imperialists has led to escalating national debt and the resulting IMF conditionalities have forced downgrading local production, exacerbating the exploitation of the working class with long hours of work, contract work, piece-rate work, and working for pittance. Women face massive exploitation, domestic and state violence, especially with worsening economic and social conditions bred through the implementation of neoliberal policies. Privatization and deregulation have wiped out social security, leaving the most vulnerable populations including elderly, the disabled and children without access to health and allied care. Critical basic needs including shelter, food, water, energy, transportation, education are now beyond the reach of the urban poor; no doubt working-class women face the brunt of the atrocities that monopoly capital has unleashed. At the same time, the imperialist structures hand-in-hand with oppressive elite authoritarian regimes in the neo-colonies have been increasingly using authoritarian and fascist tactics to try and subdue peoples struggles and resistance to corporate and feudal control. 

Though capitalism is the main hurdle to genuine sustainable development as well as threatening the well-being of the planet, it continues desperately to mask this fundamental contradiction; an effort at hand is the United Nations organized Summit of the Future (SOTF) on September 23-24, 2024. Supposedly, the SOTF aims to get the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) back on track but the current draft of the Pact for the Future — a negotiated political declaration of the SOTF – has nothing more to offer than continued promotion and implementation of neoliberalism, export-oriented growth, and investment liberalization. Climate imperialism through climate finance remains on the agenda, while no recourse is provided for its lust of highly destructive fossil fuel-dependent production. Economic development remains hinged to promotion and use of digital and automated technologies, a death knell for the working classes and the peasantry. The people of the world are not ignorant of the SOTF aims which are to further consolidate and deepen corporate monopoly control over global governance through multistake-holderism, hinged on a public-private partnership between the UN and transnational corporations or TNCs,  and create more profit-making through science, technology, and innovation or STI (the so-called Fourth Industrial Revolution), which monopoly capital falsely presents as a cure to the multiple crises that are the mark of imperialism. 

To combat the neoliberal false solutions of the Summit of the Future, The Global Peoples’ Caravan for Food, Land, and Climate Justice (GPC), launched in 2023, is hosting a Peoples Summit to produce a Rural Peoples’ Development Agenda to raise the people’s demands for land, life and livelihood against imperialism and feudal reaction. ILPS is proud to sponsor this Peoples’ Summit in the fight to build a united front for the oppressed and exploited masses to forward their future through grassroots struggles, campaigns, and policy advocacies. No doubt, a bright future for the working class, the peasantry and all marginalized sections of society is only possible through seeking self-reliance in national economy, overthrowing the shackles of oppressive regimes and imperialist powers. It is only possible through national struggles as well as through organized united fronts that seek social and national liberation, fighting for climate justice, freedom from debt, hunger and poverty, and just and lasting peace.

On 1 July 2024, a student-led movement “Students Against Discrimination” organized themselves against the government’s quota system that assured a massive 30% of civil government positions to descendants of freedom fighters. The organized student movement saw the policy as deeply discriminatory and will severely limit job prospects for the majority of Bangladesh’s young population. Dissatisfied with the government’s response to lower the percentage in parliament while violently dispersing and attacking protesters on the streets, the movement against discrimination quickly shifted to a broader and louder call to oust the repressive government of Hasina. They were met with violence by the state forces which resulted in the death of an estimated number of 400 people and about 10,000 civilians were arrested. Among them was Abu Sayed, a student leader from the peasant class who was shot and killed by police forces deployed to “control” the protests igniting outrage across the country and worldwide.

On 5 August 2024, Hasina resigned from the position of Prime Minister due to the growing people power, and fled the country for India, putting into place an interim government headed by recently appointed army chief General Waker Uz-Zaman. But the organized student movement did not let this government run for too long and called for the installation of a caretaker government to be led by Muhammad Yunus. Yunus, last Thursday, spoke to the Bangladeshi people, especially addressing the students composing the anti-repressive movement, saying a new “seedbed” must be built by the people.

The APC and ILPS Commission 6 applaud the inspiring and unwavering revolutionary spirit of the youth of Bangladesh who demonstrated the achievable success of an organized peoples’ movement for genuine change and democracy. Let the experiences of the awe-inspiring movements in South Asia, from the farmers protests in India to the youth participating and exercising their democratic rights in Bangladesh, be a model to aspire to by other struggling peoples, especially the rural sector in the Global South. We look forward to a prosperous new era for Bangladesh, one that will rightfully uphold peoples’ rights and comprehensively rebuild and strengthen its economy based on agriculture.

Long live the peoples’ struggle!

https://peoplesstruggle.org/en/the-asian-peasant-coalition-and-the-ilps-commission-6-express-its-solidarity-with-the-bangladeshi-peoples-movement/

In the recent months the focus on women farmers remains a stream. A class analysis of rural women has put them in three categories: land owners, workers on family farms, and landless labor. The first category is no doubt the smallest category, but is representative of the powerful feudal base of the country, enjoying fruits of the land without any hand in labor. The other two categories of women face feudal and patriarchal exploitation, working on land without having any right to land ownership, but their toil resulting in rich harvest for land owners. Agriculture, generating the majority of country’s earnings, as well a major livelihood contributor, remains part of the informal sector, which is a decisive factor for landless women farmers agriculture workers being the most exploited and oppressed at the hand of feudal, capitalist and patriarchal forces. As capitalist mode of agriculture intensifies and increases its grip on agricultural production, many actors are working to highlight the plight of women in the rural economy, raising issues of women’s rights, including right to decent livelihood, safe working environment, right to nourishing food and the most important, right to land. There are also policy level initiatives underway. An example is of the Sindh Women Agricultural Workers Act, which was passed in 2019 but till present little has been done for its implementation. Though, these initiatives are much needed to ensure women can raise their voice in demanding rights, it is also important to remember that exploitative classes, especially capitalism has always used women’s rights as an agenda that benefits its own coffers. Capitalism introduces new technologies much of which require more trained, skilled labor force. This is also being articulated as more and more agriculture universities around the country are stressing the need for trained manpower, a prerequisite for agricultural development. The most critical agenda of all, is to understand that the ultimate and most important of rights is the right to land and which will only be granted based on landless women and agriculture workers’ engaging in this struggle as frontline activists, and not as passive receivers of education and sporadic campaigns.

Corporate Farming – who calls the shots?

With the formation of the Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC), there has been a sharp escalation in public land being given over for corporate farming. In addition, land is also being used for gentrification projects like Zulfiqarabad city in Thatta, Bahria Town and DHA city in Karachi. Apart from such housing schemes, farmers’ rights and nationalist groups have been agitating against about 1.3 million acres of land in Sindh being handed over for corporate farming. The Sindhi Hari Tehreek organized a conference on the matter, with participants demanding land to be distributed among landless farmers, as well as called for an end to feudalism. Land grab is not only being seen in Sindh but also across the country including Punjab where a number of actors have been involved including the Revenue Employees Cooperative Housing Ltd (RECHS) as well the Bahria Town Ltd (BTL), and the Defense Housing Authority (DHA).

At the other end of the spectrum, the commercial enterprises have been praising the federal government’s corporate farming policy. According to the President, Hyderabad Chamber of Small Traders & Small Industry, Mr Shaikhani, there was a need for another green revolution, and furthering the corporate farming agenda, with emphasis on international agriculture technologies. Though he spoke in favor of the marginalized, pointing out that 24 percent of Pakistan’s population (approximately 55 million people) lived below poverty, he did not outline the most critical policy recommendation of genuine land reforms with redistribution of land away from the elite to the peasants, who are in essence the foundation stone for the country’s food security as well as economic growth.

The corporate farming agenda now also carries behind it the support of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) government in Sindh, even though regional and nationalist parties had protested earlier in the year against the 50,000 acres being given to M/s Green Corporate Initiatives, (Private) Limited, an army-backed entity for corporate farming. Recently, as many as 27 Chinese containers carrying agricultural equipment for the `Green Pakistan` initiative have come through the Khunjerab Pass.

 The Sindh government also wants to attract corporate investments in agriculture sector, while emphasizing that local growers would be given equal opportunity in such ventures. The PPP Sindh president, Mr. Nisar Ahmed Khuhro, has stated that the Sindh government has to ensure that irrigation water accessibility to the khatedars, meaning landholders based on revenue records. Given the political ambiguity of land ownership, the feudal and rich landlords controlling land and attached resources including water, what will this mean for the small farmers? It is well known that Pakistan suffers from water scarcity, and this year in the kharif season, there is a risk of 30-35 percent water shortage. For Pakistan’s policy makers, issues of national gravity are resolved not internally through democratic debate and resolution based on equitable distribution for all, but on discussions with known imperialist organizations such as the World Bank, for whom all answers emit from privatization of our resources. In a recent meeting with the Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah, the World Bank Water Global Director, Saroj Kumar Jha advised that the Karachi Water Board needs to operate like a commercial organization. Needless to point out that the privatization of the energy sector is one of the critical most reasons for Pakistan’s mounting debt.

Ventures like the Kisan Card program are being used to provide small farmers (owning 1-12 acres of land) subsidies and incentives to use ‘best quality’ agro-chemical inputs like pesticides and fertilizers, as well as seeds. Farmers have to register themselves, and open bank accounts at specified banks. These schemes promote digitalization, giving the corporate sector information and access to farmers, as well as ensure that it is their products that are being bought and used by small farmers, increasing their market sphere. It also opens space for Big data to gain insights into farmers’ practices and develop strategic market decisions furthering market hold. It should be pointed out that the World Bank has approve $78 million in financing for the Digital Economy Enhancement Project.

Agro-chemical farming continues to reap super profits from the sale of chemical fertilizers. According to a rich farmers’ lobby, the Sindh Abadgar Board (SAB), the “urea dealers’ mafia” had already minted over PKR 50 billion form farmers in Sindh. Urea prices in the past 12 months have escalated from PKR 2,900/bag to PKR  4,649/bag.

The corporate agriculture policy direction in agriculture development also shed light on the sudden interest in education and skill training programs for rural women as well. At the same time, with more mechanization and digitalization of the agriculture sector, will it mean that millions more landless will have no access to a livelihood?

In short, the only synchronization in agriculture policy is based on the demands of paying off the trillions of dollars of debt that the country’s elite have piled up on the masses. How does corporate farming benefit the landless and how does it provide food security for the people? These are questions that are critical for the economic, social and political well-being of the country.

Climate Imperialism

According to a new report released by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), ‘The Unjust Climate,’ floods and high temperatures have globally widened the income gap between rural poor and non-poor households up by $21 billion a year. Further, with every day of extreme heat, poor rural households lose 2.4% of their on-farm incomes, 1.1 percent of the value of the crops they produce, and 1.5 percent of their off-farm income relative to non-poor households. This certainly depicts the reality of Pakistan. The Global Climate Risk Index, ranks Pakistan as the fifth most climate-vulnerable country in the world. Pakistan also faces some of the highest disaster risk levels in the world, ranked as number 23 out of 194 countries.

Climate crisis facing Pakistan has many times resulted in the destruction of millions of dollars-worth crops, livestock, infrastructure and lives and livelihood of farmers, and rural people. At the same time, rising sea levels continue to destroy agricultural land. Though the advanced capitalist countries are historically responsible for the ongoing climate catastrophe, there is no recognition of the fact. The economic crunch along with the climate crisis are being used to further corporate-owned agriculture technology; collaborations on different projects are happening between different actors including Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Sindh Agriculture University (SAU), Tandojam, and Australian Research Council. In addition, the Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (PARC) in collaboration with Chinese partners has introduced climate-resilient wheat varieties that would provide higher yield per acre, that would be useful in ensuring food security for the country.

Professional farmers, such as those from the SAB, also have been urging the use of genetically modified seeds, and private sector led research initiatives for provision of ‘quality seeds’ for climate change adaptation. In other words, paving the way for agrochemical monopoly corporations to take advantage of disaster, destruction and suffering of others for increasing their profits.

Production Woes

While grand plans are underway for modernizing agriculture in the country, there are still many hurdles faced by farmers. For instance, availability of urea remains a grave issue, with imported urea being provided to fertilizer corporations but farmers unable to procure the product. At the same time, though there was a much higher cotton production than the previous year, the demand for cotton remained low, with at least 200,000 bales o cotton lying with ginners, due to the dire economic situation, high tariff rates on power and gas as well as steep taxes on the industrial sector.

For the current cotton sowing season, the government has decided on at least one million acres for cotton production. However, there have been complaints voiced that there was non-payment of the minimum support price of PKR 8,500 that had been promised at the start of the previous season.

For wheat procurement in the current season, Sindh government has approved a target of 900,000 tons of wheat to be bought at a support price of PKR 4,000/bag. The Chief Minister has directed procurement of 100,000 bardana (bags) for wheat collection from farmers. However, in spite of a bumper crop, there was news of wheat procurement from Ukraine. With delays in wheat procurement by the government, it was reported that wheat was being bought from farmers at a much lower price, with unjust deductions in payment based on excuses such as moisture content in wheat grains.

The Debt Trap Panacea – agricultural trade?

Pakistan’s external debt rose by $1.2 billion in six months to $86.358 billion as of September 30, 2023, and stood at $85.18 billion, while the public debt rose to PRK 42.62 trillion (approximately $153 billion) in January 2024.  According to the IMF, Pakistan is now seeking another medium-term bailout package that is based on longstanding structural reforms; if the IMF executive board approves the package, the staff-level agreement would be based on $1.1 billion — 828 million special drawing rights (SDR) — by late April.

According to news reports, four areas remain central to the new IMF standby agreement. These include firstly, strengthening public finance which translates to broadening the tax base in particular sectors that are real estate, retail and wholesale trade and agriculture. Secondly, to restoring the energy sector’s viability by accelerating cost-reducing reforms. Cost reducing reforms means budget cuts in production to reduce cost and increase profits, and is often hinged on cutting labor costs. Thirdly, there is emphasis on reducing inflation, which is based on the free-floating foreign exchange market. Fourthly, the emphasis on privatization continues, as well as further reforms of government owned corporations. In summary, all of these measures do not address price control of products but focus on letting Pakistani currency’s value be based on foreign exchange markets, as well further shrinking of the labor market, all measures that could ultimately result in further rise in market prices, joblessness, depreciation of the Pakistani rupee value, resulting in further economic hardship for the people.

The economic growth of the country remains unstable with the Large-Scale Manufacturing (LSM) growth at a negative -0.52 percent, and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth at only 1 percent in the second quarter of FY24. The decline in economic growth, along with the stiff conditionalities especially tariffs on electricity and gas continue to have a debilitating impact on the industrial growth as well as the working class, the urban poor and the peasantry. Inflation, as measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI) has come down from 28.3% in January to 23.06% depicting a slight decrease in the prices of food products. However, raw food products exports had risen by 35 percent in the previous month, up from $518.87 million to $702.46 million, raising food inflation to 20.2 percent.

The way out is of course increasing foreign exchange earnings, and there is a clear governmental effort to increase exports, as well as open the country to foreign direct investment. The government has invited United Arab Emirates to invest in real estate, energy, agriculture, information technology, sectors which have also been under perusal under the IMF agreements.

Malaysian government is interested in increasing import of rice from Pakistan, while welcoming free trade agreements between the two countries. Pakistan, with the help of National Logistics Corporation (NLC) has been exporting bananas, meat and seafood to Central Asian countries, as well as kinnows to Russia. Though in February, textile exports rose to $1.4 billion from $1.18bn during the same month last year, overall, in the first eight months of FY24, textile and clothing exports shrank 0.65 percent from $11.21 billion to $11.14 billion, based on the high production costs related to higher energy prices. It is also notable, that FDI from China, Pakistan’s largest investor, saw a steep decline of 80 percent during this period.

Worth pointing out that in spite of such troublesome data, the corporate sector has been reaping rich profits. On the KSE-100 index, 83 corporations have shown a growth of 45 percent, with profits of $5.94 billion up by 6.3 percent in 2023.

Pakistan Privatization Ltd

With poor credit ratings, the government is unable to get much credit. At the same time, the IMF conditionalities continue the push privatization policy as one of the key recourse for overcoming the crushing economic crisis facing the country. The Privatization Commission is supposed to be working out a three-phased privatization program for public entities in the next five-year plan (2024-29). According to the Federal Minister for Privatization and Board of Investment Abdul Aleem Khan, 15 to 20 institutions must be privatized immediately. There are also ongoing discussions with IMF to introduce reforms within the FBR

The privatization of PIA is considered a priority, and British firm Ernst & Young had been appointed as financial advisor for this purpose. The International Finance Corporation (IFC), member of the World Bank Group, who had earlier last year been appointed by the government of Pakistan as transaction advisor under the Public Private Partnership Act 2017, has informed the Federal Minister for Defence, Defence Production and Aviation Khawaja Muhammed Asif, above the outsourcing of three major airports including Islamabad International Airport, Jinnah International Airport Karachi, and Allama Iqbal International Airport Lahore in the first phase.

Capitalism’s unending disasters

While the thrust for privatization and more and more corporate sector encroachment is being encouraged, there seems to be a blind eye to the environmental disasters, and corrupt practices it brings in its wake. According to the Pakistan Environmental Protection Agency, its survey of 270 industries across four industrial zones has shown that dozens of industries are non-compliant with environmental laws. Assessment measures on discharge of effluents has shown that many industries are responsible for polluting air spaces as well as ground water. Pakistan has been categorized as the second most polluted country in 2023. According to according to ‘2023 World Air Quality Report’, published by IQAir, a Swiss air-monitoring organization, Lahore is the most polluted mega city globally, with pollution levels at 99.5 micrograms per cubic metre (μg/m³), 20 times higher than WHO guidelines. Data from Pakistan Air Quality Initiative (PAQI) has shown that hazardous air quality is resulting in a life expectancy loss of 4.4 years.

While privatization is considered to provide the best option towards development, there is little to prove this assumption. The people of Pakistan continue to suffer from tuberculosis, diabetes and cancer, with women also facing potentially triple-negative breast cancer. It’s reported that the country witnesses approximately 608,000 new TB cases and 15,000 drug-resistant TB cases, annually, while every fourth Pakistani suffers from diabetes. Private hospitals are in the meantime taking advantage of a government hospital, Services Hospital Lahore, by illegally obtaining postgraduate training and house jobs from the facility.

Climate crisis, which has been unleashed on the basis of climate imperialism continues to leash its havoc, not only in Pakistan but globally, with Vietnam suffering from huge loss of arable land due to rising sea levels. While the climate crisis leaves the most vulnerable suffering from loss of livelihood, the World Trade Organization continues to push for more free trade agreements that are entirely detrimental to small producers; a recent example is the passing of the WTO’s fishing agreement which has decided that fisherfolk are responsible for ‘illegal fishing.’

The many atrocities of capitalism also include the ongoing genocide in Gaza. Immune to the intense hunger faced by the people of Gaza, the Zionist Israel continues its food and humanitarian embargo in Gaza. According to UNICEF, said every third Gazan child is severely malnourished.

It is indeed tragic that the world’s policy makers, including those in Pakistan are unable to see the downward social and economic disasters befalling the country. The voices raised by the people against stark injustice ushered through neoliberalism, or induced by climate imperialism fall on deaf ears of our state.