Jamaat-e-Islami blames Jahangir Tareen for flour crisis

PESHAWAR: Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) provincial head Senator Mushtaq Ahmad Khan on Thursday alleged that the disqualified leader of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Jahangir Tareen was responsible for the ongoing flour crisis in the country and asked the government to immediately arrest him.

Addressing a news conference here, Mushtaq Khan said that the flour mafia was allegedly headed by Jahangir Tareen, which earned Rs 40 billion out of the flour crisis. He said that the country had exported 500,000 tonnes of wheat and it was now importing 300,000 tonnes to overcome the lingering flour crisis in the country.

"The food control authority has been handed over to the un-elected person, Jahangir Tareen," he said, and stressed that the government should investigate Jahangir Tareen. The Jamaat-e-Islami has already called for province-wide protests against the rising prices of daily commodities especially flour. He said that the government had proved a total failure in the last 18 months of its rule. The people were being deprived of the basic food items due to the flawed policies of the rulers, he added. He said that Pakistan was an agriculture country and non-availability of grain here was hard to understand. The people were being humiliated to wait in long queues for just one sack of flour, he went on to add.

Criticising the government policies, he said, "Instead of a new Pakistan, the rulers have given crisis-hit country to the people. This is Tehreek-e-Buhran (movement of crisis), not Tehreek-e-Insaf (movement of justice).” Flanked by provincial deputy chief of the party Sabir Hussain Awan, district president Atiqur Rahman, secretary information Sohaibuddin Kakakhel and others, he urged the traders and shopkeepers to participate in the JI-called demonstrations at all district headquarters in the province against the price-hike.