LAHORE: On International Food Day, Chief Minister Chaudhry Parvez Elahi criticised the Shehbaz Sharif government in the Centre for not granting permission to import wheat.

“If Shehbaz Sharif wants to take revenge, he should flex his muscles on the political battlefield and complete the number game in the Punjab Assembly,” Mr Elahi said, and asked him whether he wanted “Punjab to die with hunger”.

On the other hand, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif tweeted that the recent devastating floods had destroyed standing crops on lakhs of acres of agricultural land. Despite being an agricultural country, he said, Pakistan too needed to import edibles.

Mr Elahi told reporters the federal government had earlier imported wheat and gave 200,000 tonnes to Sindh as well as offered wheat to other provinces but denied this facility to Punjab. “Now, the Punjab government has sought permission to import one million tonnes of wheat on a self-payment basis but was denied,” he regretted.

Mr Elahi said that Punjab had also requested the federal government to allow wheat imports for the private sector so that the commodity could be supplied for better availability and bring down flour prices instead of allowing some to fleece the masses. He said the Punjab government was already giving a subsidy of Rs3.5 billion to the farmers.

Stating that the federal government is using wheat as a weapon, Mr Elahi said Punjab would approach the Supreme Court.

The chief minister also said the federal government had not released Punjab’s Rs170 billion that included hydle power profits.

Earlier, at a meeting, he said 16,000 tonnes of wheat was being provided to Islamabad from Punjab.

Mr Elahi also visited the Punjab Institute of Quran and Seerat Studies and said he had laid the foundation of Seerat Academy and the Quran Complex in June 2006 and inaugurated it in November 2007.

Published in Dawn, October 17th, 2022