The Sindh government in response to the wheat crisis in the country has said that there is no wheat crisis in Sindh, Sindh has 1.25 million tons of government reserves.
While talking to media persons, Provincial Minister for Agriculture Muhammad Ismail Rahu further said that there is no shortage of wheat in Punjab either. The federation has deliberately created an artificial crisis. In Sindh, flour mills also have stock of wheat. The decision to release wheat to flour mills is up to the cabinet.
Questioning the federation, the provincial minister said that the wheat crisis is in Punjab and KP, so is the Sindh government responsible for it? But the KP government could not even target half of it.
Minister said that KP government could not achieve the target of 5% wheat purchase, the federal agency Pasco could buy only 1.179 million tons of wheat instead of 1.8 million, Pasco bought 65% of the target wheat, KPK, Punjab in wheat procurement. And the performance of the federation was the worst.
Ismail Rahu said that it has been two months since the harvest and wheat has run out in Punjab, KP. Mafia has hidden private sector wheat to create artificial shortage. The provincial minister said that these are the same sugar thieves, flour thieves, medicine and petrol thieves who have earned trillions of rupees from the black market. This year, the country has produced 26 million tons of wheat and Pakistan’s monthly consumption is 2.1 million tons.
He said that Pasco and all the provincial governments have 6.8 million tons of wheat adding that public sector procurement and four-month consumption will be closed to 15 million tons. At present, the private sector should have more than 10 million tons of wheat.
The Agriculture Minister said that due to high prices in Punjab, the wheat of Sindh is being supplied to Punjab. “Dealing the current situation and doing government is not just a matter of Imran Khan”, he concluded