The ongoing economic crisis has triggered a price hike in Pakistan, as prices of essential commodities, including food items, have skyrocketed in recent times. The situation has reached a certain point, and common people are unable to purchase their daily necessities! Also, there have been allegations of corruption related to the import of wheat!
The Pakistan Kissan Ittehad (PKI), a farmers' organisation of the South Asian country, has taken to the streets to stage protests against the wheat crisis. Thousands of Pakistani farmers are staging protests in different parts of the country. They also participated in a procession in Multan in the second week of May 2024. The price of wheat has decreased in Pakistan as the minimum support price of 40kg of wheat is PKR 3,900, at present (USD 1 = PKR 278.16). The massive fall in the price of wheat has prompted farmers to sell the cereal grain below the minimum support price.
As farmers are not getting fair price of wheat, they have been staging protests in major cities, including Lahore, since April. The Police are trying hard to crush the protests by detaining a number of senior PKI leaders. Meanwhile, parties in Opposition have claimed that the corruption related to wheat import deteriorates the situation. The Opposition parties have also alleged that the previous Caretaker Government got involved in corruption.
In 2023, the Caretaker Government in Islamabad allowed private trading companies to start importing wheat regardless of how much wheat was being produced in the country! The local media reported that the Caretaker Government had allowed private companies to import wheat worth PKR 330 billion in seven months (from August 2023 to March 2024). At that time, the price of wheat started falling in the international market. Meanwhile, an Inquiry Committee (currently probing the wheat import scandal) has claimed that 1.3 million metric tonnes of wheat (imported in those seven months) were found to be of low quality! According to the Committee, nearly 2.8 million metric tonnes of wheat worth PKR 250 billion was imported during the tenure of the former Caretaker Government, whereas 700,000 or 0.7 million metric tonnes of wheat worth PKR 80 billion was imported by the present Federal Government. In other words, Islamabad spent a total of more than PKR 330 billion (USD 1.1 billion) on wheat import!
Pakistan continued to import wheat till April 2024. The Government of Prime Minister Mian Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif announced that more ships loaded with wheat would arrive in Pakistan soon. However, the matter got complicated as the Government refused to disclose the exact amount of wheat imported in April. Media reports suggest that six ships loaded with foreign wheat reached Pakistan on April 9, 2024. With this, the total amount of wheat imported by Pakistan reached close to four million tonnes. Experts believe that the wheat import has increased the pressure on the exchequer and the foreign exchange reserves of the country that is grappling with an economic crisis.
The Opposition parties have blasted the Government for importing wheat despite the poor condition of foreign exchange reserves. By allowing private companies to import wheat, the Government also allowed the middlemen to exploit local farmers. Furthermore, the quality of imported wheat is quite low and it is unfit for consumption. According to the parties in Opposition, private companies have made huge profits by importing the grain at a very low price.
On the other hand, wheat yield has been good so far this year in Pakistan. However, the Government has reduced the quantity of wheat purchased from the local farmers by about 50% due to the import of large quantities of wheat from abroad. The Pakistani farmers are not getting minimum support price (PKR 3,900 per 40kg) due to the excess amount of imported cereal grain in the local market. Private companies, too, have reduced wheat prices significantly to match the price (PKR 2,800-3,000 per 40kg) set by local farmers. Hence, the Pakistani farmers have become more frustrated.
The situation has gone out of control, triggering anger and discontent among the farmers. Former Prime Minister Imran Ahmed Khan Niazi's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party has demanded an investigation, accusing the former Caretaker Government of corruption in allowing the import of wheat. However, former Caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar has denied all the allegations, stressing that he is willing to face the probe. He has claimed that the Caretaker Government introduced no new law during its tenure. Kakar has also informed the press that his Government only encouraged private companies to import crops.
Interestingly, the Government of Shehbaz Sharif is not in favour of investigating this matter! Although sources close to the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) have claimed that party chief Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif asked his brother Shehbaz to conduct a thorough inquiry into the matter, the Federal Government is yet to take any specific action in this regard. Meanwhile, the Inquiry Committee led by the Cabinet Secretary held a meeting on the wheat import scam on May 12, 2024. Later, Information and Broadcasting Minister Attaullah Tarar stated that the Government was verifying information and documents related to the scam.
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