PML-N warns of ‘worst looming wheat crisis’

Accuses govt has handed over reins of SBP to IMF to do away with foreign funding cases

ISLAMABAD:

 

PML-N Secretary-General Ahsan Iqbal on Saturday said the worst looming wheat crisis was facing the country, thanks to the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government.

The PML-N leader, flanked by Ayaz Sadiq, was speaking at a press conference.Taking a jibe at the ruling party, Ahsan said the people responsible for the gas crisis had the audacity to lecture and find faults in the previous government even in the fourth year of their rule.

He went on to accuse the government of allowing the smuggling of fertilizers under its nose. “Mafias have gobbled up fertilizers, medicine and all nine yards while the government persistently wags fingers at farmers for excessive use of fertilizers.”

The government’s negligence will lead to the worst wheat crisis, he cautioned. He went on to warn that with the approval of the State Bank of Pakistan (Amendment) Bill 2021, the government was washing its hands free of the state bank by handing over the reins to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

“It [the state bank] will no longer be answerable to the government. The governor will be able to carry on for even 10 years,” he said, adding the bill had been approved just so that foreign funding cases could be done with. “13 January will go down as a dark day in the history of the country.” He said that the finance minister presented the bill but was unable to answer the questions raised by the opposition.

“A person who has failed as the finance minister was attending to the questions,” Ahsan said. He further added that the government has wreaked havoc on the energy sector as a result of which “all the houses and workshops are struggling with the non-availability of gas serve as a proof of their incompetence”.