Scramble For Scarce Donations Amid Economic Crisis In Pakistan Turns Deadly As 16 Killed This Year: Report

Inflation in Pakistan soared to a record 35 per cent last month with food inflation at 47.1 per cent in rural areas and 50.2 per cent in urban areas. 

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Weakening currency, increase in energy tariffs and a usual Ramadan spike has pushed prices adding to the economic woes of people in Pakistan. Global factors have compounded consumer inflation in the country as it tries to finalise a bail-out agreement with the International Monetary Fund. 

As per a report by Reuters, inflation in Pakistan soared to a record 35 per cent last month with food inflation at 47.1 per cent in rural areas and 50.2 per cent in urban areas. 

The turmoil as charities try to help the poorest lays bare the desperation that is likely to get worse as the impact of inflation is compounded by smaller donations of the traditional zakat alms for the poor, according to five aid groups that Reuters spoke to.

"People that would donate small amounts are now showing up asking for help while people that used to donate large amounts are saying they're struggling and scaling back," Ansar Burney, head of the Ansar Burney Trust told the news agency.

Burney said there has been a 50 per cent reduction in donations and 50 per cent increase in the number of people seeking help.

The economic malaise in the country has led to deadly scrambles with 16 people killed this year in chaos at charity distributions. 

Seven-year-old Saad Umer had joined a crowd in a poor neighbourhood in Karachi to get a handout of flour and little cash at the charity when a melee broke out and some people fell. 

Saad and 10 others, all women and children, were killed in the scramble, the Reuters report stated.  

"He was a beautiful kid. I'll never get over his death as long as I live," his father, Umer Zada. 

Zada said the distribution of aid should have been better organised, with police supervision of the hungry and desperate seeking help.

In a similar incident last week, police fired tear gas in a bid to control a frenzied crowd trying to get their hands on food supplies at a site in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.