CM chides federal govt for ‘creating wheat crisis’

Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah on Saturday said the federal government, being inexperienced and naive, created a shortage of wheat in the country last year by releasing it just after its harvest in March and then imported the same commodity at higher rates.

He added that the federal government was repeating the same episode this year. “We know how to procure wheat and at what rates and when to release it so that flour prices in the market remain stable,” he remarked as he spoke to the media after offering his condolences to the family of Umer Sharif at the legendary comedian’s residence.

The CM was accompanied by his Karachi Administrator Murtaza Wahab.

To a question, Shah said that last year, the PTI government had released wheat just after its harvest in March. “When wheat is harvested, its stocks are available in the market in abundance at a reasonable rate and when the stocks start dwindling, the governments begins to release wheat to control the prices,” he said, adding that wheat was harvested in the country in March and released in October every year.

The CM said the flour prices were lower in Sindh than Punjab. He said the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government had unleashed a tsunami of price hike, unrest and uncertainty by pursuing defective, unrealistic and unworkable policies.

Shah said the PTI had no capability of running the country and it was the Pakistan Peoples Party that had the strength and political wisdom to steer the country out of the ongoing crisis.

The CM said that Sharif was an asset to the country, and his services would always be remembered. “We are seriously considering establishing an institute named after him,” he said.