Daily Times

Leader of Opposition in National Assembly and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President Shehbaz Sharif on Sunday demanded an immediate inquiry into the flour crisis.

In a statement issued on Sunday, the opposition leader while demanding immediate inquiry into the flour crisis said that the nation should be told on whose orders the wheat and flour was exported.

“The nation must know who benefitted from the crisis,” he said. The PML-N president asked where the wheat reserves had gone in 16 months.

He feared that if this was the case, the situation after three months would be scary. “The rulers termed 2020 as the year of progress, while economic experts are declaring it a year of economic ruin,” he added.

Shehbaz went on to say that the lives of the common man are being made miserable by the day with the government’s apathetic attitude, adding that the government had failed on all fronts. “Prime Minister Imran Khan should take strong action against elements involved in creating the conundrum and resolve the matter on an immediate basis,” he added. The opposition leader urged the government to reveal the “truth” about the shortage of the basic food commodity in the country after investigation. “In-house change is a democratic right,” he maintained.

Moreover, Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari said that the Imran Khan’s government has turned the country, which was (once) a wheat exporter, into a wheat importer.

He alleged that the federal government had sent 40,000 metric tonnes of wheat to Afghanistan, and thus, intentionally created a wheat crisis.

The flour crisis has hit all the four provinces and the federal capital in the same way, but the matter has been politicised with the PTI-led federal and provincial governments of Punjab and KP blaming the PPP-ruled Sindh for wheat shortage.

On the other hand, the unprecedented hike in the price of wheat flour across the country and its acute shortage in several cities brought severe hardship for the general public.

In Lahore, people are forced to buy flour at highest-ever price of up to Rs70 per kg, and the growers are holding the flour mill owners and the government responsible for the crisis.

In Faisalabad, the flour prices have skyrocketed with an increase of up to Rs 30 per kg, as wheat supply to mills has been suspended.

Meanwhile, the nanbais of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) have announced that they will go on a strike from today (Monday) against the government, while their other associations in Punjab have given an ultimatum to the government, asking it to provide them flour at the previous rate or they would raise the prices of naan and roti.

On the other hand, the provincial food department and the district administration of Lahore have jointly formed a plan to provide “relief” to the public of the city amid the prevailing crisis, and have supplied 10,000 bags of wheat flour to 10 model markets.

Taking notice of the ‘uncontrolled’ surge in prices and prevent crisis, Prime Minister Imran Khan ordered a stern and immediate nationwide crackdown against hoarders and profiteers, and directed the officials concerned to effective steps for stabilising the prices. “Profiteers won’t be forgiven,” the premier is reported to have said, while ordering arrest of persons involved in illegal hike of wheat flour prices.