PESHAWAR: Adviser to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister on Finance Muzzammil Aslam on Saturday blamed the federal and Punjab governments for the country’s worsening wheat crisis, alleging that flawed policies had triggered the third major wheat crisis in four years under the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz-led government.
In a statement, Muzammil Aslam claimed Pakistan was witnessing record-high wheat and flour prices barely three months after the wheat harvest, while farmers were facing severe financial difficulties due to rising input costs.
He alleged that public attention was being diverted from the wheat crisis by focusing on the petroleum levy and said wheat was currently selling at around Rs11,600 per 100 kilograms from Karachi to Peshawar. According to him, wheat was retailing at around Rs115 per kilogramme, while flour prices ranged between Rs130 and Rs150 per kilogram.
Aslam said the increase in wheat prices was driven by higher electricity tariffs, fertiliser prices and diesel costs. He also alleged that Punjab had maintained an undeclared restriction on the movement of wheat and flour to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, adding that attempts to transport wheat from Sindh through Balochistan had also faced obstacles.
He said Chief Minister Sohail Afridi, the chief secretary and he had repeatedly raised the issue with the federal and Punjab governments.
The CM adviser said the provincial finance department had released Rs15.6 billion to the Food Department for wheat procurement. He added that the supply of 150,000 metric tonnes of wheat from the Pakistan Agricultural Storage and Services Corporation (PASSCO) to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa would begin shortly, while an agreement had also been finalised for the supply of an additional 50,000 metric tonnes.
The CM aide said Khyber Pakhtunkhwa produced only about 25 per cent of its wheat requirement and therefore relied heavily on supplies from Punjab. He added that the province’s wheat stocks were expected to exceed 350,000 metric tonnes, which he described as the highest reserves in the province’s history.
He said the provincial government was also supplying 70,000 metric tonnes of wheat to the private sector in an effort to stabilise prices.
Concluding his statement, he claimed Pakistan had never experienced such a severe wheat crisis within the first three months of the wheat season in its 78-year history.
