PTI, PPP pass the buck on wheat shortage

Zaman accuses Sindh govt of hoarding grain to create artificial scarcity

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf lawmaker Khurram Sher Zaman asked the Sindh government on Monday to release all wheat stock to overcome wheat shortage in the province.

He made this demand while addressing the media outside Sindh Assembly after submitting a resolution on the matter.

The PTI MPA accused the Pakistan Peoples Party-led provincial government of hoarding wheat to create an artificial shortage in the province.

According to Zaman, the Sindh government has 1.2 million tonnes of wheat in stock. This is causing unnecessary panic and stress, he claimed.

Zaman also attributed the hike in wheat prices in the province to the delay in releasing wheat to flour mills.

He criticised the Sindh government for its failure to deliver, claiming that there was not a single union council in the province which could provide basic facilities. "The PPP failed to provide clean water to the people despite ruling the province for 13 years."

He further stated that the PPP's rally in Karachi violated the coronavirus-related standard operating procedures.

Meanwhile, Sindh Transport Minister Awais Qadir Shah retorted that Zaman and PTI leader Fayyazul Hassan Chauhan did not see the failures of their own party, which leads the government in the Centre, when it came to the price of wheat.

Claiming that the PPP had never made any 'anti-people policy,' he remarked that the hikes in prices of flour and sugar and the resulting crises were because of the PTI's failures.

He drew a comparison with the PTI-led provincial government in Punjab and said that wheat should be provided at low cost there as well, adding that according to media reports, it was the PTI who is involved in the wheat shortage.

"Zaman should have submitted a resolution against the incompetence of the federal governments. They should fix the economy instead of spending their days blaming the opposition," he censured.

*With additional input from APP

Published in The Express Tribune, October 6^th, 2020.