ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Monday asked the federal and provincial governments for data to prove that they were doing enough to ensure that the citizens could survive on the minimum wage and had access to essential food items, as envisioned in Articles 9 and 14 of the Constitution.
The directions came after Dr Shakeel Ahmed Khan, wheat commissioner for the Ministry of National Food Security and Research, told the court the government’s standard minimum daily intake requirement was 2,350 calories per adult.
The court also asked Dr Shakeel to submit data showing how a family of two adults and two minors could survive with dignity as per Article 14 of the Constitution on the minimum wage of an unskilled worker — Rs7,000 to Rs9,000.
The court said the data should be ready when the bench, headed by Justice Jawwad S. Khawaja, convenes on April 22.
The directions came on Monday, as the two-member bench was hearing an application filed by Jamaat-i-Islami Secretary General Liaquat Baloch, on the plight of hapless citizens who are being forced to buy flour at exorbitant prices despite the fact that Pakistan is proclaimed to be “an agricultural country”.
Liaquat Baloch’s counsel Advocate Taufiq Asif told the court that it was essential to conduct spot checks to determine the actual situation, because wheat flour is usually sold at either higher-than-sanctioned rates or is not as readily available in the market as the government claims it is. Accepting the suggestion, the court ordered that four committees, one each for the provinces, be constituted to carry out spot checks. Each committee would also include the law officer of that province.
Liaquat Baloch moved the application last year, after receiving a letter from Chakwal-resident Malik Mohammad Nazeer. In the letter, Nazeer complained that a kilogram of flour was sold in the open market for Rs42/kg, as opposed to Rs13/kg just five years ago.
The petitioner argued that a steep rise in the cost of living was taxing the meagre resources they had, making it hard to make ends meet and put food on the table for their families.
This minimum standard, the court observed, would ensure that the fundamental rights mentioned in Articles 9 and 14 and the principles of policy set out in Article 38 of the Constitution were upheld.
Senator Malik Muhammad Rafique Rajwana, appearing as amicus curiae, asked the court to order the federal government to convene a meeting of all stakeholders to devise a plan to ensure citizens’ fundamental rights were being protected.
The senator revealed that Afghan businessmen were illegally buying wheat directly from growers and smuggling it out of Pakistan. Here, Justice Khawaja added that he had personally seen a large convoy of wheat-laden trucks go through a border crossing between Balochistan and Afghanistan.
Additional Attorney General Atiq Shah told the court that all told, Rs40.1 billion was given out as a subsidy to the country’s farmers every year, but admitted that the people looked to the Supreme Court to deliver them from government inaction.Senator Rajwana also criticised hoarders, ‘middlemen’ and flour mill-owners that hold back essential food items such as wheat -- especially during the month of Ramazan -- just to drive up the price. Referring to a recent visit to Ormara and Gwadar in Balochistan, he remarked that he was deeply moved by the abject poverty that seemed to prevail there. “It is regrettable that while the land holds immense underground wealth, the residents of the province were starving,” he said.
He called for a revival of price control mechanisms, strengthening the magistrates and holding the Federal Board of Revenue and the Customs department accountable for allowing essential food items to be smuggled out of the country under their noses.