Random thoughts
By Dr A Q Khan

There are some crimes that even the most kind-hearted pacifist would agree call for exemplary punishment. These include rape, child molestation, kidnapping of girls, kidnapping for ransom and murder of innocent people over petty material things. There is one particular menace I would personally like to add to this list of crimes – i.e., adulteration of food and production and marketing of spurious drugs. No punishment could be severe enough for those who play with the lives and health of others. The Holy Quran says that saving a human life is like saving humanity. In the same sense we could say that killing a human being is like killing humanity.

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Random thoughts
by Dr A Q Khan

The population of what now constitutes Pakistan has escalated from 30 million to 170 million. Food production should have kept pace with the rise, if not exceeded it. We are spending billions of dollars on imports of basic items like wheat, sugar, tea, spices, edible oil, pulses and vegetables. These imports are financed by ill-affordable loans at high rates. Furthermore, to make these commodities affordable for the common man, huge subsidies are given, putting further strains on the already unsustainable domestic budget resources. The import of food items at prices higher than those of the local market is also having an adverse effect on all sectors of the economy causing major inflation. (in July-December 2008 inflation on foodstuff was 31.2 percent). Long periods of load-shedding and high prices of electricity have proved to be the proverbial last straw that broke the camel’s back (i.e., the economy). With this, a vicious circle is started. Higher prices lead to higher wage demands, which lead to higher domestic production costs, which lead to decline in agricultural exports, which lead to layoffs of farm employees. All this apart from the adverse implications for the balance of payments.

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