ISLAMABAD: Food Security Minister Khusro Bakhtiar on Tuesday told Senate that the wheat crisis in Pakistan was a hoax as four million tonnes of the commodity was available in the public sector.
Winding the Senate debate on flour and wheat crises in Pakistan, Bakhtiar said the artificial crisis came as a result of supply chain disturbance.
The minister highlighted that a mechanism was evolved with the provincial governments' collaboration to overcome the current artificial wheat and flour crisis in the country. There was no shortage of wheat reserves and that supply to the provinces had been bumped up to cater to the existing crisis.
"Wheat supply to Sindh had been enhanced to 10,000-12,000 tonnes daily from the stock of Pakistan Agricultural Storage and Services Corporation (PASSCO).
"Similarly, around 5,000 tonnes of wheat was also being supplied to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on a daily basis from the government and private sector stock," the minister said.
Bakhtiar added that the price of flour was gradually decreasing in Sindh, Punjab, and KP. The Sindh government’s failure to timely lift wheat from the Pakistan Agricultural Storage and Services Corporation (PASSCO), as well as the recent goods transporters' strike, had caused the artificial crisis in the province.
The Sindh government had failed to procure "even a single grain of wheat" this year even though its target was set at 700,000 tonnes, he said.
The KP government, on the other hand, was receiving 2,000 tonnes of wheat every day while Sindh was lifting only 150 tonnes, the minister added. He said the federal government had approved 400,000 tonnes of wheat for Sindh but the province had only lifted around 100,000 tonnes.
The minister also stated that by the season's end, 850,000 tonnes of wheat in stock will be available next year. The government had increased the wheat support price from Rs1,300 to Rs1,365 per 40 kilos, he added.
Bakhtiar said the government had set a target of eight million tonnes of wheat procurement for next year.
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