Minister for National Food Security and Research Khusro Bakhtiar addressing a press conference on wheat shortage in Islamabad on Sunday. — PID
He said he had spoken to the food department secretary and assured him that if additional wheat was required, Pakistan Agricultural Storage and Services Corporation (Passco) had committed to providing 50,000 to 100,000 tonnes more.
The minister expressed the hope that beginning tomorrow, consumers should witness a decline in wheat and flour prices.
PTI reps slam Sindh govt
Meanwhile, at a press conference in Karachi, PTI Sindh President Haleem Adil Sheikh said the shortage of wheat and the hike in prices have to be controlled by the Sindh government and their officials.
“There should be an inquiry. Bilawal sahib, either you or one of your people need to give us answer as to how the provincial food department is in debt to the tune of Rs90 billion.
"Secondly, please tell us where 0.4 million tonnes of wheat from a total of 0.8 million tonnes have gone?”
He maintained that in light of the situation, the federal government is in the process of sending 10,000 tonnes of wheat to Karachi and Hyderabad through NLC [National Logistics Cell]."
He added that currently, there are at least one million tonnes of wheat in the province, including the province's own reserves, the wheat given by the federal government and the wheat brought in through duty-free imports.
"Now it is the Sindh government's responsibility to ensure supply to the mills and to reduce flour prices," he said.
"The blame for this entire situation does not lie with the prime minister, it lies with the Sindh government's incompetence and negligence."
Brandishing copies of new reports highlighting the alleged corruption of the Sindh government, Leader of the Opposition in Sindh Assembly Firdous Shamim Naqvi said that it is painfully clear who is the responsible party in the issue.
"Why is flour being sold for Rs80 across Sindh? Each MNA owns one or two mills. They are all partners [in crime]."
He added that the Sindh government should take steps on an emergency basis to reduce the price of flour to Rs40 within three days.
Sindh CM's response
On the other hand, Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah said on Sunday that the wheat shortage in the province will be brought under control by Tuesday or Wednesday.
In a statement, the CM said: "The Pakistan Agricultural Storage and Services Corporation (Passco) have given 300,000 tonnes of wheat to Sindh which will be brought in from Punjab and Balochistan."
He added that the delay in transporting the wheat had been caused by the transporters' strike.
"At least 70,000 bags of wheat have reached Karachi today. By tomorrow, an additional 50,000 bags will also be delivered."
PTI government playing 'dirty blame game': Ghani
Meanwhile, Sindh Information Minister Saeed Ghani, in response to Awan and Naqvi's statements demanded that the prime minister appear on television and apologise to the nation for the shortage.
He held the premier responsible for the wheat shortage in Sindh as well as the rest of the country.
"Is the Sindh government also responsible for the shortage in Punjab?" he pointed out.
He claimed that wheat from Punjab had been sent to KP and a shortage was intentionally created in Punjab.
"The PTI government is playing a dirty game by blaming Sindh."
Ghani criticised the federal government for being occupied with blaming Sindh while there are queues lined up in Lahore, Peshawar and Quetta of people seeking to obtain wheat.
"The PTI government cannot put up this act for much longer where it blames others to hide its own incompetence," said the minister.
Shehbaz demands inquiry into wheat exports
Shehbaz Sharif, on the other hand, demanded an inquiry into who had authorised export of wheat.
"When there was an internal shortage, why was wheat and flour sent abroad?" he asked.
He demanded that answers be provided to the nation for who was behind this act and at what price was it sold.
"The nation must know who benefitted from having caused such harm to the country."
He asked what had happened to the wheat reserves in the past 16 months and why wheat was exported if the reserves were running low.
According to Shehbaz, while the government was touting 2020 as a year of progress, economic experts are declaring it a year of economic devastation.
"If Imran Khan is unaware, then he is incompetent, and if all is at his behest, then he is the ringleader of corrupt elements,” he said.
A day earlier, PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari had alleged that the federal government had sent 40,000 metric tonnes of wheat to Afghanistan, and thus, intentionally had created a wheat crisis.
Claiming that the government had a lot of wheat that was not being supplied to the people, he alleged that the PM had perhaps created this crisis to benefit his cronies.