Hunger Games in Pakistan

Last month in Pakistan, more than a dozen people were killed in different stampedes where people had gathered to get their hands on flour and zakat. The dead included children as well. They were there hoping to avoid death by starvation. They succeeded because the death didn’t come from starvation. That was tragic enough. However, what was equally saddening was what actually became funny memes in Pakistan. Pictures of Einstein’s doppelgang carrying a flour bag were shared across various social media platforms. Mostly, the commentary was comedic in nature. I am not shaming people for having some fun in these trying times. It is human nature to succumb to comedy during times of extreme difficulties. I am not sure if the picture of Einstein’s doppelganger was real or the magic of some app, but regardless, I can’t help but wonder how many potential Einsteins were running to get their hands on a flour bag? How much potential talent is being wasted in this senseless run for survival?

There is a massive brain drain and those who are left behind see their lives consumed with the daily struggle of finding the next flour bag. The Einstein memes may have been fake but what they depict is quite real. Our Einsteins are not occupied with the secrets of the cosmos but rather the convoluted roads that lead to flour bags.

Last year, Pakistan saw close to a million people fleeing the country. And these were not some uneducated failures of society but rather included doctors, engineers, scientists and people belonging to other areas of expertise. I have no way of predicting the actual figures for the year 2023 because we are still in the early stages of it but I have a feeling that the number would be far higher than a million. Countless friends and Facebook friends, which are not really friends, have contacted me just in the last few months about possible ways of leaving Pakistan. While it is not uncommon to hear someone in Pakistan trying to escape to some western land, the level of desperation this time around is unheard of. Most of the people I know who are trying to leave are employed and have children, which they are willing to leave behind in Pakistan for the time being. So, the general understanding that the losers of society run away to foreign lands is not the case here.

Pakistanis have become disillusioned this time around that their future and the future of their children in Pakistan is a gamble they are not willing to roll the dice for. They do have the flour bag today but nobody knows what hand they will be dealt tomorrow by destiny and politics. Fighting the odds is not worth it. They say in America, to get justice, we will get our day in court. Do you know what they say in Pakistan? In order to secure our future, we will get our day inside the US embassy where we can make our case in front of the consular officer to allow us to fly to the land of opportunities.

Washington has a history of allowing people from foreign countries where the regime is not of their liking so that those incoming refugees can come to America and tell their stories to shame that regime. However, when the regime is in line with their interests, then Washington is not very enthused to give visas and looks the other way when that regime indulges in atrocities against its own people.

The rich have become poor and the poor have become starved aliens. What part of the planet can you have more cash than yesterday and still be poorer than yesterday? Well, that strange land is Pakistan. The dollar has been rising ever since we in Pakistan heard about the dollar. Those days feel so therapeutic when we were young students and Dollar actually used to be an ink pot. We could control it. This one controls us.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 13^th, 2023.

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