Wheat crisis: Firefighting continues as govt claims ‘conspiracy’ against PTI

Food minister labels shortage of flour as ‘propaganda’ aimed at replacing PM, CM

LAHORE: Instead of accepting its negligence and mismanagement, the provincial government has termed the current wheat and flour crisis a conspiracy hatched against Prime Minister Imran Khan and Punjab Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar.

Addressing a news conference on Tuesday, Punjab Minister for Food Samiullah Chaudhry claimed that the shortage of wheat and flour in the province is a pre-planned conspiracy against the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)-led government. “People responsible for this crisis should keep in mind that neither the prime minister nor the chief minister will be replaced over this baseless propaganda.”

Punjab Minister for Information Fayyazul Hassan Chohan and Minister for Industries and Trade Mian Aslam Iqbal were also present in the press conference.

The food minister said the incumbent government was the first during the past decade that had disbursed complete and timely payments to cultivators for their produce. “Gunny bags have been distributed among farmers in a transparent manner and every single grain of wheat has been procured from them respectfully.”

It is the PTI-led government that introduced a gunny bags policy for all and provided a toll-free phone number for farmers to register their complaints regarding distribution of bags, the food minister added. He said the provincial government had demonstrated a responsible behaviour and procured wheat of its share, whereas the authorities in Sindh had failed to buy even a grain. “Today, Sindh government is making claims that it has 0.85 million tonnes of wheat reserves but when a NAB team conducted raids on their godowns, they found mud and sand in the bags,” he alleged.

The food minister also claimed that allegations levelled by the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) government in Sindh, regarding export of 0.7 million tons of wheat by the PTI-led government went against the facts.

He maintained that when the PTI-led government came into power, it had 7.3 million tonnes of wheat reserves of the last four years. “We did not export these reserves but sold them in the local market.”

Now when Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have no reserves of wheat, the Punjab chief minister has allowed provision of wheat to other provinces, he highlighted. The provincial government has decided to provide 5,000 tonnes of wheat to KPK on a daily basis, he added. “The provincial government will also provide wheat to Sindh and Balochistan, if required.”

The minister said the provincial government had 2.3 million tonnes of wheat reserves. “The government has set up 482 sale points and 207 truck stations to provide flour to the public, where 20kg flour bags are available at Rs790 each.”

Meanwhile, the trade minister, while presiding over a meeting of the taskforce for price control, directed the officials concerned to monitor the supply of wheat to flour mills, production of flour and its supply to the markets. He said the mills will have to produce the amount of flour matching the wheat being supplied. “There is no flour crisis in Punjab and surplus reserves of wheat are available,” he added.

He underscored that the situation had arisen due to weakness of the monitoring mechanism. The provincial government has decided to supply 500 kilogrammes of subsidised wheat to the registered chakkis of Lahore, Multan and Faisalabad, he added. “The process of wheat supply has already started where flour will be available at Rs42 to 45 per kilogramme.”

A comprehensive system should be formulated to monitor the process of provision of wheat to the chakkis and their production, he said. “Profiteers and hoarders mafia will be defeated jointly.”

During a market survey, shopkeepers in many areas of the provincial capital complained that they were not getting wheat flour bags from mills. Muhammad Waqas, a shopkeeper, said he had been trying to buy wheat flour stocks from mills but in vain. “I contacted two flour mills for procurement of stock, but they refused supply on the pretext of shortage,” he said.

Naheed, a customer, said that there were no 20kg wheat flour bags available in her neighbourhood in Township area. “We have to buy wheat flour from trucks parked at different locations. Ministers are claiming that there is no shortage of wheat or flour but then why is the government parking trucks that carry wheat flour bags,” she asked.

Instead of firefighting, the government should take concrete steps so that such a situation would never arise again, she added. An office-bearer of the Pakistan Flour Mills Association (PFMA) claimed that the millers were warning the government that the market was getting dry but the government failed to pay attention. “Punjab has estimated wheat reserves of around 4.1 million tonnes, which are sufficient to meet local requirements and to export wheat to other provinces till harvesting of the new crop.”

He said the current crisis is a result of mismanagement. “There is no need to import wheat but if the government wanted to do so, it should have acted earlier to avert this situation.”  The recent transporters’ strike is another factor that disrupted wheat and flour supply line, he concluded.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 22^nd, 2020.