Hunger is central to the relationship between the politicians and the poor and that explains the politics and popularity of the ‘Sasti Roti’ in Punjab these days.

It is simple: the poors’ hunger for ‘Roti’ provides an opportunity to the politicians to satiate their own hunger for power. Remember the wonders that the slogan “Roti, Kapra aur Makan” did to Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) in the last elections held in united Pakistan in 1970!

This year’s elections were won by the PPP and PML-N on the platform of democracy but the slogan still holds the imagination of the poor in the country.

PPP emerged as the largest single party in the 2008 elections and was able to forge alliances at the centre and in three provinces, it lost Punjab, the bread basket, to the PML-N, a rival-turned-reluctant partner.

That gives PML-N unique power as other provinces and regions depend, to various extents, on Punjab for their staple food, wheat -- particularly in the times of shortages as now.

After Punjab’s “sasti roti” scheme, the cricketer-turned politician Imran Khan has also set up “cheap tandoors” in Lahore and Pirwadhai, Rawalpindi to provide ‘Rs2 a roti’ to the people. In fact, the idea of cheap tandoor was originally floated by Mr Khan.

The Punjab government is providing Rs12 million subsidy to the mill owners per day for the supply of wheat flour (atta) to the tandoors. But when the scheme covers the whole province, it will reach to Rs24 million per day.

The Punjab government has allocated Rs7.5 billion for the scheme for the whole year. Alone in the month of Ramadan it spent Rs1.6 billion on providing flour at Rs300 per 20kg to the tandoors.

Recently NWFP and Sindh governments officially requested Punjab for uninterrupted supply of wheat to meet shortfalls in their own production.

A crisis has been unfolding over the past few months due to the Punjab government’s unofficial ban on the movement of wheat to the NWFP. But the Punjab government is naturally more interested in winning the hearts and minds of its own people and so launched a “Sasti Roti” programme.

With the federal government having been reduced to a mere spectator in the game, the inter-provincial crisis is deepening and the provinces are at loggerheads with each other over the demand and supply of wheat.

To maximise the political capital it was reaping through its ‘Rs2 Roti’ plan, the PML-N government pushed the central government to increase the official support price for wheat from Rs625 to Rs950. This would make wheat growers happy, but the farmers of Punjab would be happiest as most wheat is grown in Punjab.

It is a different matter that costlier wheat would mean costlier Roti in other provinces where it costs currently a minimum of Rs4.

Pakistan produces 0ver 22 million tons wheat, the country’s principal crop in a good year. Since it is not sufficient to meet the requirement of the population, the government imports a substantial amount of the commodity from other countries.

Political analysts’ believe that the launch of ‘political tandoor’ is to counter the federal government-sponsored Rs34 billion-Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) for the poor across the country.

The monopoly of Punjab over its wheat has prompted other provinces to claim similar exclusive rights over their natural resources such as oil, gas, coal, and electricity.

The federal government must intervene to resolve this issue to ensure food security.