Speakers at a consultative meeting underlined that food and human insecurity bread social injustice - the major reasons of extremism and terrorism, which are the worst form of human insecurity engulfing Pakistan.
The unrest has led to diversion of major chunk of the national resources earmarked for Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) towards maintenance of law and order in the country. Moreover, foreign investment shied away and price hike has made the life of common man miserable in the absence of ample employment opportunities particularly for educated youth.
The discussion on "Relationship between food insecurity, poverty and conflict" was organised by Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) in collaboration with United States Institute of Peace (USIP) here on Monday. Speakers including former Federal Secretary Interior Syed Kamal Shah, Shaib Haq of World Food Programme (WFP) and Dr Abid Quyam Suleri said individual, national, regional and global security is interconnected.
They said that poverty and hunger was multiplying security concerns, as there was a strong linkage between food security, hunger, poverty, and vulnerability to disasters. They also underlined the need that the citizens should challenge the fundamental paradigm of state which was focusing more on non-development expenditures such as debt-servicing, defence, day to day administration and very little on development of people.
"Lack of investment on individuals and their social development is among major reasons behind extremism and terrorism in Pakistan," they noted. Syed Kamal Shah shared his perspective on status of Pakistan in terms of food security. He said that there was a need to differentiate between extremism and terrorism and all extremists were not necessarily terrorists.
He shed light on various types of securities and their relationship with each other. He expressed that the Muslims were being stigmatised; quoting the examples of LTTE in Sri Lanka and Japanese Kamikaze Pilots to show that whenever there was a feeling of oppression and helplessness, terrorism emerges.
"So it is quite dangerous to relate any religion with terrorism. There should be a co-operative approach in dealing with such conflicts and to adopt both hard and soft approaches rather than dealing only with coercion as it could deteriorate the situation further," Shah said. Elaborating extremism, he said that extremism was a state of mind and heart, and thus extremism and terrorism needed to be separated and treated differently.
"Extremism could be dealt with a softer approach as it is related to a matter of the heart while terrorism has its ideological reason behind its execution," he added. He said the causes of extremism include lack of education, poverty and food insecurity, long fostering political disputes, and political deprivation and a sense of powerlessness.
Dr Sahib Haq said that the regions having more food insecurity had a higher rate of militancy notably Waziristan, Dera Bugti and some other parts of Northern Punjab have had a higher rate of militancy as compared to other conflict zones. Sahib Haq was of the opinion that militancy had a direct connection with food security and needed to be dealt taking into account its economic perspective, like creating job opportunities for the unemployed.
Moeed Yusuf of the United States Institute of Peace (USIP), while giving opening remarks, stressed the need to learn from experiences of other countries, which improved their internal management and resolved internal conflicts and subsequently developed without relying on foreign countries. "Corruption has become a norm in Pakistan and without individual self-accountability it is impossible to develop a balanced society in Pakistan," he added.
Dr Abid Qaiyum Suleri, executive director of SDPI, gave a detailed presentation on social dimension of food insecurity. He highlighted key findings of recently launched Food Insecurity Report 2009, which has been jointly published by World Food Programme, SDPI and Sustainable Development Commission. "The results show that food insecurity at the household, district, provinces and country levels became more severe as compared to 2003 and more particularly after the massive floods in the country," he said.