WONG:
Soaring food prices and food shortages in Pakistan could mean that almost half of all Pakistanis go hungry.
Life is hard at the best of times in this desert area of southern Pakistan. The houses are made of dried mud, the roofs are thatched
with grass and water is precious.
But in recent days, with food prices soaring, worries are growing that there will not be enough to eat.
When Pakistani labourer Mangal Ram's children cry from hunger, all he has to offer them is empty promises.
[Ran, Father of Seven]:
"My kids complain and cry for more food but what can I do? We say 'wait, we'll cook more', what else can we do?"
In Pakistan inflation is running at about 20 percent, led by fuel and food prices.
Soaring food prices and shortages of staples mean about 77 million people of Pakistan's 160 million population have no food security and are not able to get food that meets their dietarty needs.
There have not been serious food protests in Pakistan, but analysts say there is a danger that anger could explode in a society that has already fallen prey to Islamist militants bent on bringing down the government.
Ram's village is home to a Hindu community of about 100 families with only one well and no electricity.
Villagers grow barley and vegetables but if the rains fail, so do the crops. To buy food, villagers have to walk several kilometres (miles) to a road where a bus runs once a day to the town of Mitthi.
At times, villagers said they have nothing to eat but 'rab', a tasteless gruel of coarsely ground wheat mixed with water. Many of them had been forced into debt, even those who leave to work as labourers.
Pakistani city dwellers aren't faring much better.
[Wali Khan, Lives in Karachi Slum]:
"Allah has given us this life so we are living it. We eat one meal a day instead of two. We can not commit suicide. It is forbidden. We have to live as Allah has given us this life."
The father of 10, Khan works as a watchman and earns about $110 a month.
But the new government, led by the party of assassinated former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, says there is no food crisis. It blames people hoarding food.
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