The hunger games

THE statement that hunger has reached crisis proportions in Pakistan may come as a surprise to
anyone eating at a plush restaurant or walking down the well-stocked aisle of an upscale
supermarket. However, according to a national nutrition survey carried out in 2013, nearly 58pc
of all Pakistani households one out of every two are food insecure, whilst according to a
demographic and health survey for the year 2012-2013, malnutrition is also widespread and 24pc
of Pakistani children under the age of five one out of four exhibit severely stunted
growth. Although Sindh, particularly in the region of Tharparkar, is the hardest hit, the hunger
problem is by no means confined to any one area.
The reality is that as citizens of a developing country the threat of hunger and thirst looms large
over all our heads, regardless of our economic or social status. Agriculture-intensive countries
like Pakistan often compete with each other to sell unprocessed raw materials in the international
market in order to purchase end products from it. However, in doing so, these countries take a
double hit: they receive a low price for their raw materials and pay a far greater one for the end
products, as well as accepting unfair, even exploitative terms along the way just for the
opportunity of being included in the global food chain.

As citizens of a developing country the threat of hunger and thirst looms

large over all our heads.

Price disparity, however, is not the only adverse impact of the integrated food chain. Developing
countries consider themselves lucky when they hire out their farms to international contractors.
But this means that they grow crops using seeds supplied by the contractors and according to
their policies and specifications. This leads not only to a decrease in crop variety but also in the
utility of the land, which can no longer be rotated seasonally amongst different crops. The
situation is compounded by the fact that international contractors protect their seeds with onerous
intellectual property conditions, and thereby tie up farmers, and the country as a whole, in a
recurrent cycle of dependency.
Such was the imbalance created by these policies that at the turn of the millennium, there were
nearly 1,000 million undernourished people in the world. Consequently, reducing the rate of
hunger by half in 15 years was adopted as the first Millennium Development Goal. However,
according to a 2015 report titled The State of Food Insecurity in the World, published inter alia
by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO), 795 million people still

remain undernourished globally. And this was not due to low food production but due to the
inability of countries to provide proper access to food to their citizens. It is perhaps no surprise
that the report listed Pakistan as one of the countries that had particularly lagged behind in this
regard.
What exactly are Pakistans obligations? Pakistan is a signatory to the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights 1948, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights 1976
and the Rights of the Child 1990 all of which emphasise an individuals right to available,
accessible and adequate nutrition, which means the provision of food as well as water. In 2004,
Pakistan also adopted Voluntary Guidelines for the Progressive Realisation of the Right to
Adequate Food which included obligations to protect sources of food from destruction and
environmental damage, ensuring that food in the market is safe and nutritious, developing and
enforcing food quality and safety standards and ensuring fair and equal market practices.
Pakistan has a number of laws in place to fulfil these requirements: Article 38(d) of the
Constitution of Pakistan protects the right to food for citizens; the Pure Foods Ordinance, 1960,
deals with the preparation and sale of foods; the Pakistan Hotels and Restaurant Act 1976,
regulates the services provided by hotels and restaurants; the Pakistan Standards and Quality
Control Authority Act 1996 provides for the inspection and testing inter alia of food items for
their quality, specification and characteristics and the Competition Act 2010 deals with anticompetitive market practices. However, whilst some of these laws are behind times, none of
them have been enforced either adequately or consistently.
If Pakistan is struggling to understand what it may do, it may look to Bangladesh, which is the
only South Asian country that has achieved a significant measure of food security in recent years
in achieving the Millennium Development Goals. A 2010 study carried out by the World Bank,
cited five factors that had contributed to Bangladeshs success: adoption of coordinated policies
in agriculture, nutrition and health, education, gender, water, sanitation, housing, pro-poor
economic development and trade; a multi-phased implementation programme with short- and
long-term goals; establishment of monitoring institutions; commitment of adequate resources and
continued financial investment and, most importantly, the support of civil society.
The role played by civil society is directly relevant to all of us in our individual capacity. We can
seek information about the quality of food; lodge complaints if food quality is low, if food
products are being sold with incorrect or inadequate labelling or under unhygienic conditions,
and support local products by buying from vendors rather than from supermarkets and by
preferring Pakistani food brands to foreign ones. Most importantly, in the privacy of our homes,
we can take measures to prevent the waste of water.
The UN Special Rapporteur for the Right to Food states, rather eloquently, that, [t]he human
right to adequate food provides a signpost. It obliges us to pay attention to the situation of the

most marginalised and vulnerable. Perhaps the most important thing we can do is to remember
that in this scenario we are the vulnerable.
The writer is a barrister and an advocate of the Supreme Court of Pakistan.
amber.darr@gmail.com
Published in Dawn, April 4th, 2016
Panama Papers: Secret accounts of the rich and powerful

World leaders, stars of the pitch and screen and dozens of billionaires were among those named
and shamed in what looks to be the biggest ever leak of inside information in history.
The leaked data, covering 1977 to the end of last year, provides what the International
Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) described as a "never-before-seen view inside the
offshore world".
Covering 40 years of emails, financial records and passport details, the investigation conducted
by more than 100 media groups shows how some of the world's most powerful people have
secreted away their money in offshore jurisdictions.
The massive leak of documents recalls Wikileaks' exploits of 2010 which included the release
of 500,000 secret military files on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and 250,000 diplomatic
cables, and infuriated the US.
The vast stash of records was obtained from an anonymous source by German daily
Sueddeutsche Zeitung and shared with media worldwide by the ICIJ.
The documents came from Mossack Fonseca, a Panama-based law firm with offices in more than
35 countries.
Panama Papers allegations

Below are some of the main allegations made in Sunday's release based on documents from
Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca:

Banks, companies and aides close to Russian President Vladimir Putin secretly shuffled
as much as $2 billion using offshore companies, gaining hidden influence in the country's
media and automotive industries. The Kremlin has accused the ICIJ of launching a
misleading information attack.

Iceland's Prime Minister Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson and his wife used an offshore
company, Wintris Inc., to hide millions of dollars of investments in three major banks
during the financial crisis. He has denied any wrongdoing but faces a vote of no confidence
this week.

Two leaders who have staked their reputations on pushing for transparency Chinese
President Xi Jinping and British Prime Minister David Cameron have at some point had
family links to offshore companies.

Several other world leaders, including Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, the king of Saudi
Arabia and the children of the president of Azerbaijan, also control offshore companies.

Mossack Fonseca worked with at least 33 people and companies blacklisted by

Washington because of business links to Mexican drug lords, terrorist organisations or
rogue nations, including North Korea. One supplied fuel for planes the US alleges Syria's
regime used to bomb its own citizens.

The firm's customers include Ponzi schemers, drug kingpins, tax evaders and a United
States (US) businessman convicted of travelling to Russia to have sex with underage
orphans, who signed papers for an offshore company while in jail.

The files also identify a convicted money launderer who claimed he'd arranged a $50,000
illegal campaign contribution used to pay the Watergate burglars, 29 billionaires from
Forbes' rich list, and martial arts film star Jackie Chan.

FIFA's ethics committee member Juan Pedro Damiani had business ties with three men
indicted in the corruption scandal engulfing football's governing body former FIFA vice
president Eugenio Figueredo as well as Hugo Jinkis and his son, who are accused of paying
bribes for broadcast rights in Latin America.

The world's best football player, Lionel Messi, and his father own a shell company, Mega
Star Enterprises, previously unknown to Spanish investigators probing the Barcelona
forward's tax affairs.

Suspended UEFA chief Michel Platini, who is serving a six-year ban from football for
over a $2 million payment from FIFA president Sepp Blatter, turned to Mossack Fonseca to
help him administer an offshore company created in Panama in 2007.

More than 500 banks, their subsidiaries and branches have worked with Mossack
Fonseca since the 1970s to help clients manage offshore companies. UBS set up more than
1,100 and HSBC and its affiliates created more than 2,300.

'Biggest leak in history'

However, in terms of size, "the 'Panama Papers' is likely the biggest leak of inside information in
history," according to ICIJ.
"It is equally likely to be one of the most explosive in the nature of its revelations," the group
added.
The documents show that "banks, law firms and other offshore players often fail to follow legal
requirements to make sure clients are not involved in criminal enterprises, tax dodging or
political corruption", the ICIJ said on its website.
"The files show that these fixers and middlemen protect themselves and their clients by
concealing suspect transactions. In some instances, they work to head off official investigations
by backdating and destroying documents," it added.
"These findings show how deeply ingrained harmful practices and criminality are in the offshore
world," said Gabriel Zucman, an economist at the University of California, Berkeley, cited by the
consortium.
The leaked documents were reviewed by a team of more than 370 reporters from over 70
countries, according to the ICIJ.
It was not immediately clear who was the original source of the leaked documents.
Dawn, 4-4-2016