Sindh government held responsible for flour situation: 'There's no wheat shortage in Punjab': Bakhtiar

Federal Minister for National Food Security Khusro Bakhtiar on Sunday claimed that the Sindh government did not procure wheat while its target was 0.7 million tons of wheat this year.

"Pakistan Agriculture Storage and Services Corporation (PASSCO) gave 0.4 million tons of wheat to the Sindh government but it has so far carried only 0.1 million tons of wheat so far. We provided 9,000 tons of wheat to Sindh through National Logistic Cell (NLC) and we will provide 10,000 tons of more wheat within two days," the minister expressed these views while addressing a news conference here on Sunday.

He said that Sindh province is witnessing shortage of flour due to its own policies and failure in timely procuring the consignment provided by the PASSCO. He said that there is no shortage of wheat in Punjab as it has adequate reserves of wheat.

He said the government has fixed the price of wheat at Rs 1,365 per 40 kg and it has set the purchase target of 2.7 million tons of wheat next year. He said that 1.2 million tons of wheat has been affected due to seasonal conditions.

The minister said that prices and artificial shortage of wheat and flour will come down soon due to government's effective measures. He said the federal government is taking concrete steps to control rising prices of wheat and flour in the country.

The minister claimed that "effective" steps are being taken to stop smuggling of flour from the country as attempts to smuggle 40,000 tons of wheat to Afghanistan from Chaman border have been foiled.

He said, "We increased 4,000 to 5,000 tons of wheat supply to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. We are facing difficulties due to the process of supply of wheat."

He said that Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government is also going to abolish Rs 400 additional tax (Gas Infrastructure Development Cess) on the bag of urea fertilizer.

The minister said that there is need of agriculture policy to ensure food security and economic development. "There is need of 'Economic Charter' at this time for economic development and for this purpose all the political parties should play their role," he said.