Headlines:
- Food Scarcity is because of the Capitalist Economic System
- The Capitalist Economic System Deprives the People of Essentials, like Wheat Rotis
- International Law is Colonialist in its Nature
Food Scarcity is because of the Capitalist Economic System
According to the Dawn Newspaper, the State Bank of Pakistan in its third quarterly report said that 36.9 percent households in Pakistan are facing food insecurity, whilst amongst them 18.3 percent households are facing severe food insecurity. Pakistan has been placed at 106th position out of 119 countries, with regards to the global hunger index, which means it is amongst those countries where there is severe hunger and poverty. The fact is Pakistan has been placed amongst those seven countries, where two-thirds of the food insecure people of the world live.
Food insecurity exists despite the fact that Pakistan is self-sufficient in almost every food item. According to a 2018 national survey jointly conducted by the Ministry of Health and UNICEF, Pakistan ranks 8th, 10th, 5th and 4th for the production of wheat, rice, sugar cane and milk respectively. Despite being self-sufficient in food stuff, Pakistan faces scarcity because the government exports to earn dollars as part of the implementation of the capitalist economic system. In order to lower the trade deficit and to please colonialist institutions, Government of Pakistan exports food stuff, which may not create food security issues, but definitely inflates its prices so that it becomes out of the reach of the common people. Furthermore, by following the capitalist economic system, the regime focuses on the production of food stuff, instead of ensuring their distribution, so every citizen must satisfy his needs. It is because of this approach we often hear certain insensitive statements from rulers, such as “if tomatoes are expensive than don’t eat them,” “instead of two wheat rotis, eat only one” or that “Allah (swt) has made poor and rich so what we can do.” This situation not only prevails in Pakistan, developed countries face this problem as well, as they have not been able to end poverty. Today, in the US, 40 million people are battling with hunger, and every one household out of six which has children is not able to buy sufficient food for the family. This is the cruel face of the Western capitalist system.
In contrast to the capitalist system, Islam focuses on the distribution wealth instead of its production alone and declares that the main economic problem is distribution of wealth, not its production. Therefore, an Islamic State ensures the distribution of food stuff. Those people who are not capable to earn and feed themselves, nor can their relatives take care of them, then the state takes care of them. In the era of the Khaleefah Umar (ra), food became scarce in Madinah. He (ra) asked the wali of Egypt to send food to Madinah and the wali kept sending food to Madinah, until its shortage ended. Moreover, the currency of the Khilafah is based on gold and silver and the state uses this currency or barter in international trade and so the state does not need to export food stuff to earn dollars. Therefore, only the upcoming Khilafah will end food insecurity in Pakistan and will enable humanity to enjoy the bounties of Allah (swt). He (swt) said, وَابْتَغِ فِيمَا آتَاكَ اللَّهُ الدَّارَ الآخِرَةَ وَلاَ تَنسَ نَصِيبَكَ مِنَ الدُّنْيَا وَأَحْسِنْ كَمَا أَحْسَنَ اللَّهُ إِلَيْكَ وَلاَ تَبْغِ الْفَسَادَ فِي الأَرْضِ إِنَّ اللَّهَ لاَ يُحِبُّ الْمُفْسِدِينَ “But seek, with that (wealth) which Allah has bestowed on you, the home of the Hereafter, and forget not your portion of legal enjoyment in this world, and do good as Allah has been good to you, and seek not mischief in the land. Verily, Allah likes not the Mufsidun (those who commit great crimes and sins).” [Al Qasas: 77]
The Capitalist Economic System Deprives the People of Essentials, Like Wheat Rotis
Following the daylong shutter down strike by nanbais (bakers), the district administration of Peshawar on 11th July 2019, agreed to increase the wheat roti price from Rs10 to Rs15. Nanbais observed a shutter down strike to demand increase in the official roti price citing higher rates of flour, fuel and power as the reason.
The regime of “change” has increased the prices of electricity and gas following IMF instructions as the preceding “corrupt” regimes had been doing. As per agreement with the IMF, the regime is bound to “reconsider” prices of electricity and gas after every three months and has to withdraw subsidies on them, which will further increase their prices. If just the recent increases in prices of gas and electricity has forced Nanbais to increase the price by 50 percent, then to what horrifying extent will its price will go to in the coming days? Despite self-sufficiency in wheat production, the majority of the people in Pakistan will not be able to eat it two times a day. The price of electricity and gas is increased on the direction of IMF in order to ensure profits for the private owners of these resources. It means the capitalist system does not care about a common man and only protects the interests of large capitalists. This fact proves that real “change” cannot take place under democracy and the capitalist system and those who assert that they can bring change through it, simply lie.
In the Khilafah (Caliphate) established on the Method of the Prophethood, nanbias will not be forced to increase the price of bread because of costly electricity and gas, as Islam’s economic system has declared electricity and gas public property. RasulAllah ﷺ said, «الْمُسْلِمُونَ شُرَكَاءُ فِي ثَلَاثٍ الْمَاءِ وَالْكَلَإِ وَالنَّارِ» “The Muslims are partners in three things, waters, feeding pastures and fire (energy).” (Ahmad). In our Great Deen, energy, whether it is electricity, gas or petrol, is a public property, which is supervised by the state to ensure its entire benefit is for all the people, and the production cost remains in control and so people will get this basic item at affordable prices.
International Law is Colonialist in its Nature
According to the news published on 14th July 2019, the World Bank’s International Center for Settlement of Disputes (ICSID) has asked Pakistan to pay a penalty of 6 billion dollars for cancelling mining rights in Reko Diq.
Although the character of these institutions is colonialist, the rulers of Pakistan take our matters to them for resolution and accept their decisions, despite the fact that they are the cause of the problem. ICSID is a sister concern of the World Bank which decides matter related to investments under international laws. International law was first introduced by the crusader Europe to halt the expansion of the Uthmani Khilafah. After facing continuous defeats at the hands of the Muslims, the European states organized a conference in Westphalia in 1648 in which they introduced the so called “International Law”. The purpose of this law was to seize the rights of Muslims and to halt the increasing dominance of Islam. The League of Nations was activated to enforce international law. Today the World Bank, United Nations and international courts are those institutions which enforce international law.
International law was written by a few powerful states and they use it to force smaller nations to follow their policies and hence to establish their hegemony. There is an unwritten law that the President of World Bank will always be an American, although it is a global bank. Similarly, the International Criminal Court (ICC) was established by Europe, which uses international law to protect the interests of European nations. Therefore, participating in these institutions or taking our matters to them or accepting their decisions, while we have the law of Allah swt, is taking our matters to Taghoot. Allah (swt) said, أَلَمْ تَرَ إِلَى الَّذِينَ يَزْعُمُونَ أَنَّهُمْ آمَنُواْ بِمَا أُنزِلَ إِلَيْكَ وَمَا أُنزِلَ مِن قَبْلِكَ يُرِيدُونَ أَن يَتَحَاكَمُواْ إِلَى الطَّاغُوتِ وَقَدْ أُمِرُواْ أَن يَكْفُرُواْ بِهِ وَيُرِيدُ الشَّيْطَانُ أَن يُضِلَّهُمْ ضَلاَلاً بَعِيدًا “Have you seen those who pretend to believe in what was revealed to you and what was revealed before you desire in their ruling to refer to the Taghoot and they have been ordered to disbelieve in it and Shaytan desires to lead them far astray.” [Al-Nisa: 60]. The laws made by humans can never deliver justice to humanity. Only the Khilafah will have the power to deliver justice as it rules by all that Allah swt has revealed. The Khilafah will never accept laws made by the American killers of Red Indians, British pirates, French war criminals, oppressors of the Muslims of East Turkistan and Russia who supports the butcher of Syria.