Opposition leader seeks release of wheat in market

Urges Sindh government not to cause artificial price increase

KARACHI:

Sindh Assembly Opposition Haleem Adil Sheikh urged the provincial government to start releasing wheat at the earliest and ensure availability of the commodity at reasonable rates to save the people from artificial inflation.

Addressing a press conference here at the Sindh Assembly Building, Sheikh asked Bilawal Zardari to explain why the flour price in Sindh was higher than Punjab.

He said that due to the corruption of the PPP government, people of the province were compelled to buy wheat flour at exorbitant rates.

He pointed out that the price of wheat flour in Sindh was around Rs75 per kilogramme, while the same was being sold in Punjab at a rate of Rs58 per kg.

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"There were 1.2 million tonnes of wheat stocked with the food department, but the Sindh government was not releasing it and mills were purchasing expensive wheat from the open market at a rate of Rs3,000 per 40kgs. Consequently, flour was sold at higher prices, he observed.

He said the government had announced to release wheat from October 15 at rate of Rs1950 per 40 kgs to allow traders to take maximum benefit out of their stock purchased at lower rates.

The opposition believed that the Rs13 billion allocated as a subsidy would be embezzled as well.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 10^th, 2021.