Geopolitical tensions have been directly pushing the seventh session of the United Nations Climate Assembly towards timid, lowest-common-denominator outcomes, as great-power rival states stripped draft resolutions of binding language and turned them into soft ‘cooperation’ statements,” said Wali Haider, leading the Farmers’ Major Group, at UNEA-7. The FMG participated in meetings, submitted statements and advocated for peasant and smallholder farmers’ rights, soil health, seed and food sovereignty. At a critical time, such as 2025, when we are off track to meet major requirements of climate treaties such as the Paris Agreement, climate governance should ideally strengthen to prevent further damage to the planet. For countries like Pakistan, the Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC and the United Nations Environment Assembly are major events that determine future policies. The UNEA is the world’s highest-level decision-making body on the environment, providing overarching policy guidance. But UNEA-7 becomes a stage where the environmental crisis is acknowledged but never truly confronted, because confronting it would require confronting the industries and governments that currently run the world.

This year, it started with ambitious draft resolutions on the impact of AI, management of minerals and environmental crimes. Only 11 resolutions were passed. Half of the proposed texts remained an issue of debate and did not pass. These included those on critical issues such as environmental crimes and deep-sea protection. Ongoing wars and geopolitical tensions block any strong text on environmental harm in conflicts, with states insisting on vague wording to avoid legal exposure and resist references to conflict-linked destruction. Language became the centre stage of negotiations, with countries trying to dilute the wording of resolutions. When they are not clearly drafted, the resolutions become impractical.

“Ambition has been sacrificed on the altar of economic interests. The resolution on minerals and metals repeatedly collapsed because the world’s most powerful states refused to let global environmental rules interfere with their extractive and industrial interests. Mining corporations and metal traders sit invisibly behind national positions, pushing governments to strip out any binding safeguards or oversight of critical mineral supply chains. Diplomatic language about development, sovereignty, and enlightened self-interest becomes a shield to protect the destructive industries that fuel national wealth and geopolitical leverage.” Wali added.

Until the global political economy is restructured to integrate direct financing for vulnerable nations like Pakistan and provide groups like the Farmers’ Major Group with actual decision-making power, international assemblies will continue to be stages where crises are acknowledged but not resolved.

The real roadblock is not technical complexity. It is a global political economy engineered to defend extraction, even as the environmental crisis deepens. It is no longer a matter of confusion, lack of science or capacity gaps; it is a global political economy built on unchecked extraction and militarised resource competition that shifts the burden onto poorer communities and weaker states. Asked about the negotiations, Norway’s Minister of Climate and Environment Andreas Bjelland Eriksen said it had been a difficult year. “The mandate of the UNEP has been challenged at times. Negotiations have been tough as we had a hard time finding common ground or a common language to negotiate effectively,” he said.

A report by Climate Home News said states like Turkey, which is planning to host the COP31, have also been lobbying with other states to block some resolutions. Major powers like the US disassociated from the resolutions and raised questions on the principles and standards of global governance. Specifically, the US said they back out from the UNEP resolutions that they believed fell outside the organisation’s mandate. “Many resolutions contain problematic language recognising rights that do not exist. We are committed to pragmatic, science-based cooperation that advances environmental protection while respecting national sovereignty,” the US official addressing the closing plenary of the Assembly said.

Dalia Fernanda Marquez of the Women’s Major Group at the UN observed that some countries wanted to remove all references to gender from official texts. She argued that the assembly needs specific gender-based data, as a gendered perspective on the climate crisis is missing from these debates, especially in resolutions such as those on antimicrobial resistance, which must incorporate a gender perspective because women often serve as primary caregivers and agricultural workers. AMR refers to the process where bacteria and viruses evolve and no longer respond to medicines, creating a massive health risk. “At this UNEA, however, there has been more regression than ever,” she said.

This breakdown reveals that the voluntary model of international cooperation is incapable of managing a planet in crisis as it consistently prioritises national sovereignty and extractive economic interests over collective ecological stability. One of the primary structural flaws is the “consensus trap,” where the requirement for near-unanimous agreement allows veto to a single powerful nation or a small bloc of fossil-fuel-dependent states. To effectively address the climate crisis, the world needs a shift from “soft law” to “hard law,” characterised by legally binding enforcement mechanisms and independent monitoring bodies capable of prosecuting environmental crimes. Moreover, there is a pressing need to redefine international law to prioritise the global commons, such as the atmosphere and oceans, over the traditional concept of absolute national sovereignty, which currently allows states to destroy shared resources for short-term profit.

Until the global political economy is restructured to integrate direct financing for vulnerable nations like Pakistan and provide groups like the Farmers’ Major Group with actual decision-making power, international assemblies will continue to be stages where crises are acknowledged but never truly resolved.

The writer is a freelance climate journalist based in Lahore

Source: https://www.thenews.pk/tns/detail/1387934-the-changing-landscape-of-climate-governance

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.

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.

With the start of a new year, the situation in the country sees no real change in terms of economic stability. It is unfortunate that in 75 years, it has gone to the IMF 23 times for financial bailout programs. The State Bank of Pakistan has received the second tranche of $700 million, which is approximately equivalent to SDR 528 million. The last tranche of $1.2 billion under the $3 billion Standby Agreement is expected in March 2024.

Data on Pakistan’s borrowing record is stark testimony to its achievements in being able to pull itself out of debt on a path to self-reliance and economic stability: it ranks 5^th in outstanding debt at $7.4 billion. Other countries before Pakistan are Argentina, Egypt, Ukraine, and Ecuador. According to Pakistan’s Economic Affairs Division (EAD) data, the country seems to be functioning on borrowed money; it has borrowed $5.968 billion from multiple financing sources during the first half (July-December) of the current fiscal year 2023-24 compared to $5.595 billion borrowed during the same period of 2022-23. According to news reports, Pakistan has received $1.2 billion as the first tranche of the $3 billion Stand-By Arrangement (SBA) in July 2023, and $1 billion from the UAE. If these amounts are added to the total financial inflows, a total of $8.168 billion during the first half of the current fiscal year (FY).

In the fiscal year 2023, Pakistan purchased $894 million, accompanied by charges and interest payments totaling $776 million and $325.8 million, respectively. According to the IMF, an IMF loan is disbursed by the borrower’s purchase of foreign currency assets from the IMF with its own currency. Repayment of the loan is achieved by the borrower’s repurchase of its currency from the IMF with foreign currency. In 2022, Pakistan’s purchase from the IMF had been $1.64 billion, which is testimony to its dependence on the IMF. It is noteworthy that the IMF has downward revised real GDP growth to 2% from 2.5% for the ongoing FY.

Panacea or Poison

In order to get out of the debt quagmire, it seems that the government policy making is based on neoliberalism, with emphasis on increasing exports as the lynch pin. The Federal Minister Commerce, Industries & Production as part of the caretaker government, has been paying especial attention to increasing trade relations with various countries, and has even been visiting the MENA region to boost Pakistani trade. In addition, he is hopeful that exports will cross $100 billion in the next five years if the 10,000-acre new industrial zone in Karachi comes to fruition. That this push for exports is having an effect on the trade deficit is certainly there, as it has narrowed by 34.29 percent in the first half (July-December) of the current fiscal year 2023-24. Exports in December have increased by 22.21 percent, from $2.3 billion last year to $2.82 billion for the same corresponding month.

On the whole, there has been increased exports for a number of agricultural goods such as maize, whose exports have tripled, escalating from $85 million to $262 million in a period of one year, and rice whose exports in the same period from last year have gone up from $282.53 million to $367.39 million. Similarly, textile and clothing sector exports have gone up to $1.39 billion, up from $1.35bn in the same month the previous year, and has shown an expansion of 3.3 percent. The export of raw food products have increased massively up to 111.63% in December 2023, and overall, agriculture and food exports jumped by 64% during first half of current fiscal year; the increase was from $2.345 billion to $3.847 billion in same period last year. It needs to be highlighted that our major export markets are the European Union, USA and China. Given the intense political tug of war between the western imperialist countries and China, with Pakistan caught in between, it does not border well for Pakistan. It is important to note that Pakistan is adopting trade settlements in Chinese RMB rather than US dollars. There has been an increase of nearly 600 percent in trade settlements using the Chinese currency. This will decrease the country’s dependency on US dollars but of course what will it mean in terms of Pakistan’s debt obligations to China have to be further studied.

From the perspective of food security, the upsurge in exports for rice, (especially basmati), meat and fruits has other ramifications as well. High food prices mean hardship and hunger for the people at home, especially the very farmers who are responsible for rearing the livestock, fruit and vegetables. In the end, though huge loans taken by governments run by elite of the country, the cost is born by the working masses. There has been high inflation in the country, going up to 29.7 percent in the last months. According to reports, various consumer companies saw their unit sales falling and declining purchasing power of the people. They have been blamed on soaring prices of basic kitchen items, as well as electricity rates. The economic situation of the common man is well understood by suicide cases being reported which include murder of family members as well based on inability to meet family needs. Such shocking cases portray the suicidal rise in basic items. This is even more tragic, given that global food prices came down in 2023. According to the FAO, its Food Price Index (FFPI) fell by 10% below its December 2022 level.

Apart from promoting exports, foreign direct investment (FDI) is also being promoted in the country. Only in November, 2023, FDI increased by 12 percent, growing from previous year’s $117 million to $131.4 million in the same time frame. SBP data for the first half of the current fiscal year shows that a net FDI of $862.6 million was received and is a 35% increase. Foreign investment is based on the primary self-interest of the investors and does not necessarily take into consideration the needs of the local communities, or country’s welfare. The aid agencies as well as commercial groups of various countries including China, UAE, USA are interested in investment in agriculture, including fruits, mines and minerals. This trend is quite apparent. The Caretaker Federal Minister for Privatization has concluded the privatization of the Heavy Electrical Complex (HEC) with the purchasing party IMS Engineering. The Asian Development Bank has stated that it would promote enhancement of the role of the private sector in its so-called climate resilient housing ecosystems. No doubt that these investments will promote neoliberalism, hinged on privatization that would increase the role of transnational corporations responsible for human rights abuses and environmental degradation.

Produce and Export, No Matter the Cost

Agriculture production is bulwark of export. And the means for increasing production seems to lie only on external inputs and technologies. The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet has given permission importing 200,000 metric tons of urea as a buffer stock, which is being brought in from Azerbaijan. There were special instructions given against hoarding and ensuring farmers’ easy access to the input. Apart from urea, agriculture sector machinery and equipment were also imported, showing an increase of 60.76 percent.

Of course, multinational corporations such as Nestle have been promoting modern technologies, and for ‘educating’ farmers. It is quite ironical that the farming sector, which is the biggest export sector, responsible for most of the foreign exchange earnings, is always being considered the most backward.

In the same vein, another Spanish clothing multinational, Industria de Diseño Textil (Inditex) is also interested in working with farmers in Pakistan. According to D&B Hoovers, Inditex is one of the world’s largest fashion retailers, globally having 6,475 shops under seven different banners, including Zara, Bershka, and Zara Home. It is owned by a Spanish billionaire. One wonders, why such a corporation, which has faced intense criticism for its ‘fashion sense’ making fun of ongoing massacres in occupied Palestine? Further, can giant multinational corporations who are responsible for intense exploitation of workers and environment deliver justice and equity?

In any case, Inditex has provided funding to the International Labor Organization (ILO) for carrying out the second phase of a program, Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work (FPRW) in the cotton sector. The objective of the workshop is to promote rights of cotton workers, and capacity building of cotton-growing communities to advocate for their rights and address gender inequalities in the sector. The ILO and Inditex entered into a partnership in 2017 to promote an integrated approach to FPRW in the cotton supply chain in China, India, Mali and Pakistan.

Another news item provides information on the caretaker Sindh government and M/s Green Corporate Initiative (Private) Limited entering an agreement to provide over 52,000 acres of land in six districts for corporate farming. This initiative falls under the Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC). The M/s Green Corporate Initiative (Private) Limited which is under the umbrella of the Pakistan Army is supposed to carry out corporate farming using barren land in all provinces of Pakistan. It should be noticed that in November 2023, the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) had approved provision of PKR 20 billion through the Federal Government to the Defence Division, Ministry of Defence. According to the news, based on the successful pilot corporate agriculture farming project in Punjab, a government-to-government (G2G) Joint Venture Agreement was signed at Chief Minister House between the Sindh government and M/s Green Corporate Initiative (Private) Limited. The amount of land and districts included in providing barren land include 28,000 acres in Khairpur, 10,000 acres in Tharparkar, 9,305 acres in Dadu, 1,000 acres in Thatta, 3,408 acres in Sujawal and 1,000 acres in Badin. The agreement is based on 20 years to carry out the so-called Green Pakistan Initiative.

It should be pointed out that while thousands of acres of land is being handed over for corporate farming in Sindh, the province is facing persisting water shortage that could lead to a drought. In addition, climate change impacts including calamities as well as rising sea level has been eating up land and/or it has been destroyed by salinity. The year 2023 has been marked as the hottest year in world records. In Pakistan, the climate crisis has had a major impact on the cotton crop, which has been suffering a decline for a number of years, and even this year the production did not reach the set target. In the mountains, there has been a dry spell and lack of snowfall which means lesser amount of water in the rivers. This will impact fish species that breed in the downstream ecosystem. The impact of climate crisis, now having been upgraded to climate emergency is a global phenomenon. Across the world, countries are suffering from drought, forest fires, decreased ground water and other impacts. For experts on the subject, the answers lie in attracting foreign direct investment in the fisheries sector. Colonial dominance has allowed dependence on foreign expertise rather than trying to tap into indigenous knowledge systems and finding answers from the communities’ wisdom gained over centuries. It is worth pointing out that while so much emphasis is being put on trade and foreign trade, the world is going through an intense political upheaval, with wars and militarization disrupting trade routes. The genocidal aggression by Apartheid Israel against Gaza, suggests of a looming famine in the Strip, with its entire population of 2.2 million already facing crisis levels of food insecurity.

Is this the time for relying more on trade or is it time to assess our internal strengths, capabilities and promote self-reliance leading to a resilient national economy? A recalibration is also needed as according to the World Bank’s analysis Pakistan’s the economic performance does not seem so rosy, with growth projected at only 1.7 percent. This scenario is also predicted globally, where third year in a row, economic growth is predicted to remain slow, prolonging poverty and debilitating debt levels in many developing countries.

The discrimination against small and landless farmers is quite blatant. In Kohat district, the agriculture department has introduced drones for pesticide spraying. From a health perspective, no doubt its beneficial for the farmers to spared pesticide spraying. But a remark from a senior member of the agriculture department that such technology is more time efficient, as well as spares the cost of hiring labor is objectionable. Livelihood, and for that decent livelihood is the responsibility of the state and such remarks show a stark lack of concern for the livelihood of agriculture workers.

Small farmers have great difficulty in accessing these chemical fertilizers due to black marketing, and due to land being intoxicated to these chemicals, it is difficult to get a good harvest without their use. It should be noticed that in the current FY budget, PKR 30 billion have been allocated for fertilizer subsidy. However, the subsidy is provided as gas subsidy to fertilizer plants, and then fertilizer has to be sold at a subsidized rate. As is seen every year, in the end chemical fertilizers are in short supply and hoarded to be sold at much higher rates than set by the government and/or or smuggled out of the country. In summary, profits are minted by various interest groups except small farmers.

At the same time, the government officials protect the big landlords by not levying taxes on their income and agricultural land. According to a tax expert, Dr Ikramul Haq, the remedy is to let the federal government collect the taxation on agricultural income, while transferring to the provincial governments collection of sales tax on goods. According to him, the current situation allows concentration of resources and powers in the hands of privileged classes who support corrupt government officials as they safeguard interests of these elite segments of society. There has been a constant resistance from the federal government and provincial authorities to impose income tax on agricultural income of rich landlords based on their political clout. In the FY22-23, agricultural income tax accumulatively from all of the provincial governments was PKR 2.4 billion. Reportedly, its national potential could be up to PKR 800 billion, if the agricultural income tax was imposed in accordance with the Constitution.

National Assets: Our Children

There is a price to the above policies. And it is being paid by children. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s first provincial Child Labor Survey 2022-23 has shown that 11%, about 745,165 children are employed as child labor. The situation would be more or less the same in the other provinces. With accelerating economic deterioration in the economic stability of the country, children are forced to share in financial provision for their families. Another issue that revolves around children’s health is the increasing occurrence of Type 1 diabetes in children in Pakistan. Around 100,000 are estimated to be suffering. The cause of Type 1 diabetes in children is considered to be the presence of high fatty and processed food. It is considered to be more prevalent in urban rather than rural centers and is also due to lack of healthy environment providing children the awareness and space for physical activity. The context of development is based on many parameters defined in the Sustainable Development Goals of the UN. It is quite evident that children are being neglected in the country based on glamorizing values pertaining to profit-seeking Capitalist society especially targeting children.

There has to be a more wholistic view of development rather than just seeking foreign exchange and chasing our tails to get rid of the mountainous debt.

According to the Federal Minister for National Food Security and Research Dr Kauser Malik, Sino-Pak agricultural ties and joint efforts will help address the issue of food security and to learn from each other’s experiences. Similarly, the Alternative Livelihoods Options project, a five-year project worth $1.3 million  finished recently; it was meant to teach women improved agricultural practices and increasing their access to new, alternative crops. According to the US Ambassador Donald A Blome, who participated in a closing event of the project, “the achievements (of the project) are far-reaching,” and has “helped establish fruit orchards, vegetable gardens, greenhouses, and irrigation systems benefitting more than 25,000 people.” In addition, USAID’s Economic Recovery and Development Activity (ERDA) is collaborating with the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Agriculture Research and local farmers, in pioneering an innovative approach to certified wheat seed production in District Mardan.

Through the many decades that Pakistan has received back-breaking loans and other grants to help us ‘develop,’ the outcome has been disappointing. In the 21^st Century, when we are confronting climate crisis, global warming is a vicious reality destroying millions of acres of land and livelihood: can countries like the US and China, who have a history of chemical intensive, ecologically suicidal agricultural systems teach Pakistani farmers how to practice agriculture production?

The Food Ministry has announced that no seeds, including genetically modified organisms (GMOs), would be permitted into the country without complying with the prescribed Plant Quarantine Regulations and Seed Regulations. But such a compelling directive is actually misleading. The government is requesting a technical and commercial research report for potential import of GMO seeds for oil extraction and meal production. There is no dialogue nationally on a controversial issue as GMOs, especially with farming communities, while the emphasis is to study global standard operating procedures and sanitary and phytosanitary protocols for GMO soybean seed importation. Apart from the corporate driven Sanitary and Phytosanitary Mechanisms and Technical Barriers to Trade agreements of the World Trade Organization (WTO), on the question of seeds, one must always remember that Trade-related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs) agreement of the WTO. TRIPs and other WTO agreements have strangled agriculture economy of third world countries because, based on these agreements,  mega-corporations of rich industrial countries have been able to capture local production and markets in food and agriculture. Global standards are for mega corporations of the rich industrial countries, and is the absolute opposite of the concept of food sovereignty.

One good news, at least on the surface, is that the Sindh livestock department and the Sindh Agriculture University (SAU) Tando Jam have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for preservation of indigenous cattle breeds such as Sindhi Kundhi buffalo, Sindhi red cow and other breeds.

In the end, our focus on development is based on having faith not in the peasant class, which is directly responsible for much of the wealth generated through agriculture production as can be seen from financial gain of PKR 400 billion with the increase of 4 million tons of wheat production in 2022-23. Additionally, $3 billion has been earned from the export of basmati and coarse rice this year. The Pakistan Business Forum (PBF) has stated that said Pakistan’s exports in rice, and sesame seed increased by 13.5 percent, while the trade deficit decreased by 4.5 percent during the same period.

But the contribution of the small and landless farmers to the economy is ignored, while, there is no end to recommendations on collaboration with government research institutions, the private sector among others.  For instance, the Sindh Agricultural University Vice Chancellor, Dr Fateh Marri has pointed out that over 3.5 million tons of valuable banana waste was burnt every year although it could be used to produce by-products, including fiber, composite fertilizers, confectionery and cosmetics. His suggestion is to form a banana research group comprising public, private and industrial sectors along with research institutes and growers, and hoped that this group could become part of World Banana Forum. The word ‘growers’ invariably means rich farmers, and not the peasantry itself.

At the same time, agriculturists, economists, progressive farmers and researchers have lamented the situation where agriculture sector in Sindh is hostage to commission agents, who, instead of farmers, fix prices of farm products. In Punjab, farmers have been raising complaints on the non-availability of fertilizers, and pointing to overcharging of the commodity by dealers. Urea was being sold at PKR 4,200-4,500 per bag against the government-prescribed price of PKR 3,600 per bag, while DAP prices were around PKR 13,500 per bag, with many police reports being filed against dealers for black marketing.

The Punjab government had fixed wheat sowing target for 2023-24 at 16 million acres to achieve a target of 25.6 million tons, but given shortfall and black marketing of inputs will this be possible? Even if it is possible, given shortage of oil and gas fuel as a critical input for their production, where does it leave us in the long run? The government is reportedly engaged with Russia, China and Azerbaijan for purchase of 0.2 million tons of urea fertilizer for the Rabi season. Is it feasible, given our huge debt, that we continue to rely on chemical fertilizers that are on one hand are expensive and detrimental to climate and soil fertility, and on the other, based on dependency of external sources?

It also needs to be emphasized that infrastructure development is often not finished in time; the caretaker government has indicated that work on the construction of Daducha Dam with an escalated cost of Rs10 billion has been resumed, while three key water sector projects face funding shortfall.

In general, there has been an increase in exports in the country. According to the Pakistan Statistical Bureau (PSB), higher shipments to China, and exports to nine regional countries resulted in a year-on-year growth of 14.3 percent in the first four months of the current fiscal year. Pakistan’s merchandise exports increased for the second month in a row after a year-long downward trend, data released by PBS. In absolute terms, the exports were recorded at $2.70 billion in October against $2.38 billion over the corresponding month of last year (20222), amounting to a growth of 13.55 percent. The textile and clothing exports recovered, with a recorded growth of 5.92 percent, with exports rising to $1.44 billion, up from $1.35billion in the same month last year.

Similarly, raw food products saw an export surge of almost 60 percent in October. Apart from basmati rice, meat exports were worth $152.58 million in the 4MFY24 in comparison to $128.46 million over last year, achieving a growth of 18.77 percent. Increase in meat exports is based on reaching new markets that include Jordan, Egypt, and Uzbekistan.

From February to August, sugar export figures reached 248,854 tons against no exports recorded over the comparable period of last year. Fruit exports, in the first four months of the FY24 increased 13.53 percent to $108.99 million against $96.003 million over last year. All other food exports increased by13.88 percent to $404.52 million in the first four months of the FY24 from $355.22 million in comparison to the corresponding months of last year. In the same period, only fish and fish product exports worth $123.86 million saw a decline of 7.96 percent from a year ago of $134.57 million.

Fish and fish exports have declined. However, Pakistan has successfully secured a two-year extension (December 2025) to continue the commercial export of fish and fish products to the United States. This decision by the US administration exempts Pakistan from adhering to the standards outlined in the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) of 2016, to offer additional time for aligning fishing practices with US environmental standards.

The result of increased food exports resulted in higher prices for consumers at home. It has been reported that ‘unchecked exports’ resulted in a high food inflation of 29 percent in October, 2023, making access to essential food items such as wheat flour, rice, sugar, meat and vegetables difficult.

Contesting news reports point to, at the least, lack of coherency in food and agricultural directives. There have been unprecedented high sugar prices at PRK 200/kg that resulted in the ECC imposing an export ban from August 10, 2023.A relevant point regarding sugar production is though profits accumulated by the sugar industry, there is big gap in fair prices for sugarcane. The caretaker Chief Minister of Sindh, fixed the minimum price of sugar cane at PKR 425 per 40 kg, whereas Punjab has fixed it at PKR 400 for the same quantity. However, in Punjab, farmers have rejected the sugarcane support price demanding that it should be raised to PKR 500 per 40 kg, at least. Various farmers’ platforms have been contesting the price, as well as highlighting the bias in favor of the industry and not farmers.

Similar tussle is apparent with respect to government policy and industry. The Pakistan Flour Mills Association has rejected the wheat issue price of PKR 4,700 per 40kg announced by the food authorities. The Association pointed out that adding PKR 800 per 40kg as incidental charges to the cost of grain procured by the government at PKR 3,900 per 40kg from the farmers was not fair.

The question of food security is also quite muddled. The National Food Security Ministry has announced that the country has well-stocked wheat reserves, as federal and provincial food departments have total stock of 6.934 million tons of wheat. At the same time, according to European traders, the Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP), has issued an international tender to purchase and import 110,000 metric tons of wheat.

The presence of ‘trawler mafia’ in Gwadar robbing the local fishermen in Makran of their livelihood is being raised, as well. Chairman Hidayatur Rehman Baloch, Haq Do Tehreek (HDT) has pointed out human rights abuses faced by the Tehreek in advocating for their rights; in spite of promises by the previous government, workers and leaders holding protests have been tortured and arrested.

Apart from the fisher folk facing scarce livelihood there is also ongoing marine ecological crisis which also fails to get government attention.

According to a World Bank study in Pakistan, there was a link between malnutrition and poor quality of water which inhibited the absorption of healthy minerals in the body. According to Dr Alvi, the President of Pakistan, climate and water emergency had exposed the underlying dysfunctions in global, national, and local economies, that failed to produce economic, environmental, and social justice for people. He proposed developing platforms with the involvement of the communities to encourage them to follow preparedness, and resilience initiatives on water conservation

Climate change and rising global temperatures have affected marine ecosystems, as well as fresh water upstream of the Indus River delta. A result has been a decline in fish catch, impacting fisherfolk’s income. The Ministry of Food Security, Government of Pakistan through its Fisheries Development Board will develop a digital link through a website to bring together various stakeholders (farmers, auctioneers, whole-sellers, processors and retailers); the website will be providing fish farmers information on market price as well as demand for fish in in national local markets. Public and private sectors will be supported to further fish production, especially in in Gilgit Baltistan, Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Khyber Pakhtunkha, shortly. One does wonder though, can the vast bulk of fisherfolk engage in such a digital platform?

Pakistan and China are emphasizing controlling livestock diseases, so as to enhance the growth potential in order to increase per animal production and solve livestock health issues. The federal government has provided PKR 36.6 million, Export Development Fund to build a ‘center of excellence’ at an estimated cost of Rs200 million to protect the Kinnow crop against different diseases.

One has to ask, are these measures for the majority who comprise of small and landless farmers, fisherfolk, or is for the rich industrial sector, and the traders?

Pakistan remains a highly indebted country. The past months have shown Pakistan to be near bankruptcy and default. Almost four months down the road things remain on shaky footings. Based on AidData, US international development research institution, Pakistan is the third biggest recipient of Chinese development finance worldwide; only two per cent of China’s portfolio in Pakistan between 2000 and 2021 consisted of grants while the rest was in the form of loans. 2017 onwards, Chinese finance has been mostly for rescue loans rather than developmental projects.

Saudi Arabia has rolled over the $3 billion deposit facility for another year to support State Bank of Pakistan’s foreign exchange reserves which may fall to below $4 billion in case the amount is withdrawn.

Pakistan’s development policy has included attracting international investment. The Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC) has been playing a key role in Pakistan and Kuwait venturing into seven Memorandum of Understandings for investments amounting to $10 billion, in various fields such as mining, food security and environment. Similarly, under the SIFC, leaders of UAE and Pakistan, witnessed by the Chief of Army Staff, have also signed MoUs worth billions of dollars to boost economic and strategic cooperation between the two countries.

It is expected that there will be no roadblocks to the IMF’s release of about $710 million second tranche of $3 billion Standby Arrangement (SBA), most probably to be released in December. However, the Fund, and the World Bank have raised concerns over SIFC, advising against creation of a group of preferred investors.

At the same time, industry leaders in the country want the government to seek other sources of cheaper external financing; the current business environment is difficult due to the high electricity, gas and petroleum prices.

The thrust of neoliberalism continues to be trade and investment, along with privatization. Privatization of PIA, and outsourcing of airport operations are still on the books. Climate crisis continues to be a major disruptive force in economic development especially agriculture. Global warming is ever present, to play havoc with agriculture production as well as communities. For instance, Himalayan glaciers are supposed to lose up to 75 percent of their ice by the century’s end, according to the International Centre for Integrated Mountain. Avalanches, and lake bursts are a feature of Northern areas of Pakistan.

An Islamabad-based climate change expert has pointed to the use of fossil fuels in energy, transport, industries and agriculture for the emission of greenhouse gases (mainly carbon dioxide and methane), which are the main reason for escalating global temperatures. As has been iterated numerous times, Pakistan’s global carbon emissions are less than one percent.

According to the caretaker Finance Minister Dr. Shamshad Akhtar, Pakistan is facing a trade-off between raising climate finance and development finance, as seeking money for climate finance negatively impacts development finance. The country needs an estimated investment of $340 billion to address climate and development challenges between 2023 and 2030.

Given the continued price escalation in essential goods and services, especially food, energy and transport, and lack of decent livelihood, there have been many protests happening across the country. While Metrobus security staff have been protesting as they had not been paid their salaries for three months, Karachi University, and Karakoram University students have been agitating against tuition fee hike. In Punjab University, students were marching for revival of student unions in educational institutions across the country.

The brutal war by the Zionist State of Israel continues and people across Pakistan, as well as Azad Jammu and Kashmir, have been standing in solidarity with Palestinians across the country. In particular, the presence of schoolchildren in street marches is noteworthy given the US-led Zionist aggression in Palestine has been especially targeting children.