'Sindh produced 3.85m tonnes of wheat'

Wahab passes the buck back to Centre on wheat crisis, asks about KP, Punjab

KARACHI:

As much as 3.85 million metric tonnes of wheat was produced in Sindh but the wheat production target was not met in Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, said Sindh government spokesperson Murtaza Wahab on Friday.

Addressing a press conference at the Sindh Assembly building, Wahab, who is also the provincial chief minister's adviser on environment, law and coastal development, remarked that despite this, it was alleged that Sindh caused a wheat crisis.

Federal ministers should respond to the targets of K-P by claiming that Punjab did not meet its target of procuring 4.5 million metric tonnes of wheat and that the federal agency, Pakistan Agricultural Storage and Services Corporation (Passco), had to buy 1.8 million metric tonnes of wheat, claimed Wahab.

According to Wahab, Sindh achieved its wheat production and procurement targets and yet it was the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf-led federal government which was blaming Sindh for its own incompetence. "The federal government took anti-farmer measures. If the farmer gets the price of the crop, he will cultivate more grain," he maintained.

Wahab claimed that the Sindh government had suggested setting a minimum export price of Rs2,000 for wheat. "If the federal government fixes the per capita price of wheat at Rs1,400, how will the farmer cultivate the crop?"

The provincial adviser further stated that while importing wheat, an arbitrary price was being paid to the importer. But the federal government is not willing to gives benefits to farmers, he alleged.

According to the Sindh government spokesperson, the parliament had also become inactive under Prime Minister Imran Khan's tenure.

Responding to a media query, Wahab said the important thing now was to know what sugar baron Jahangir Tareen demanded. Tareen attended every meeting of the federal government, said Wahab, adding that 'mafias' in the Centre were taking advantage.

According to him, if the correct decisions had been taken, the wheat crisis would not have emerged in the country and the price of flour would not have increased.

He claimed that the cost of growing wheat had increased for farmers, while the federal government was buying expensive wheat from Ukraine to the benefit of the farmers there instead.