Worst hit by hunger

PAKISTAN recorded the highest score in South Asia on the 2026 Global Hunger Index released on Wednesday, reflecting a worsening food security crisis driven by economic instability, climate shocks and global conflicts. Published jointly by Welthungerhilfe, the Institute for International Law of Peace and Armed Conflict at Ruhr University Bochum and the Swiss organization Helvetas under the theme 'No Security without Food Security', the report reveals that progress in South Asia has largely stagnated, with conditions in Pakistan and Afghanistan deteriorating since 2018. In Pakistan, economic instability and sharp food price inflation have eroded households' purchasing power and constrained access to food. There is no doubt that the successive governments have been trying their level best to address the challenge of rising poverty in the country but desired progress could not be made due to various factors. Covid-19, natural disasters triggered by climate change like incessant rains and floods, war on terror and regional situation neutralized some of the benefits for disadvantaged segments of the society accruing from poverty reduction schemes. This becomes understandable from the reality that allocations for the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) reached Rs. 838 billion during the ongoing fiscal year covering 12 million families but the quarterly stipend of Rs. 14,500/- is no more than peanuts in the face of heightened inflation. Critics and policy analysts rightly point out that BISP functions primarily as a consumption-smoothing or disaster-relief tool rather than a mechanism that graduates families permanently out of poverty. Similarly, some of the policy measures like tax on food items including milk, tricky electricity tariff and unjust levy on petroleum products are squeezing household income forcing families to cut back on nutrient-rich foods like meat, milk, rice and fresh produce. There is no shortage of food in an agrarian country but there is a severe lack of economic access for vulnerable households.