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- May 6, 2024
- Kainat Shakeel
- 0
ISLAMABAD: A committee to investigate the purported import of Rs 330 billion worth of wheat convened here on Sunday for its first meeting. The cabinet division secretary leads the inquiry committee, and many import and stock preservation facets were examined. Dawn contacted Information Minister Attaullah Tarar, who stated, “The committee worked today on verifying data and documents.” When the committee asked whether the committee could call former caretaker prime minister Anwaarul Haq Kakar, former finance minister Shamshad Akhtar, and current interior minister Mohsin Naqvi (former chief minister of Punjab), the minister refuted any such reports, saying, “No one was called or interviewed, as is being reported in the media.”
The minister stated, “The report is under preparation and has not been presented to anyone,” about the information in the media reports about the inquiry report’s contents. He also said that the reports concerning the meeting with Shehbaz Sharif, the prime minister, were untrue. According to media reports, the investigation has so far shown that the caretaker setup bought wheat worth Rs330 billion between August 2023 and March 2024, of which 1.3 million tonnes of wheat were determined to be fungus-contaminated and therefore unsafe for human consumption. However, the minister of information declared that the stocks were “wholly safe and functional.”
According to media reports, the previous government of the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM), led by the PML-N, decided not to import wheat until July 2023. The report claims that 700,000 tons of wheat valued at Rs80 billion entered the nation during the current administration, while 2.8 million tonnes of wheat were imported for Rs250 billion during the last caretaker government. In all, $1.1 billion was exported from Pakistan to import the goods. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif promised to “protect the interests of farmers at all costs,” but it didn’t seem like the federal government was willing to look into the massive swindle in detail and prosecute those in charge at the time of the import.
Currently, PM Shehbaz has constituted a fact-finding commission, chaired by Cabinet Secretary Kamran Ali Afzal, to investigate anomalies in the import. The committee has been tasked with looking into the situation, and next week the cabinet is expected to receive the committee’s findings. The Shehbaz government on Saturday stated that no such decision was planned. According to sources who spoke to Dawn, former prime minister and PML-N supreme leader Nawaz Sharif wanted the Shehbaz-led coalition government to take “indiscriminate” action against those involved in the alleged scam without taking into account their “strong political clout” and refer the matter to the NAB) or FIA to investigate the alleged scam.
The fact-finding committee reportedly summoned Mr. Kakar and Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi. The committee head made an explanatory statement earlier, according to media sources. The committee has not summoned Mr. Kakar or Mr. Naqvi, according to Kamran Ali Afzal. Shamshad Akhtar, the former acting finance minister, had been duly called by the committee. PM Sharif chaired a meeting at his Model Town home on Saturday, where he addressed issues about wheat procurement through Passco and established a committee under the Ministry of National Food Security and Research to resolve farmers’ complaints about selling their wheat and getting wheat bags within “four days.”
A statement from PM House claims that to give farmers the most advantage possible, the federal government is acquiring 1.8 million tonnes of wheat through Passco. This year’s bumper crop was predicted by the previous PDM regime, according to sources, but because of stocks that had already been dumped at the government-owned storage facility Passco, the government was hesitant to purchase the new crop from farmers at the agreed-upon price. As a result, growers were forced to stage protests in the streets and sell their produce for a low price in the private sector. The farmers, who are now receiving support from the main opposition PTI, are furious, and the present government is finding it extremely difficult to resolve the issue. The prime minister instructed officials to personally oversee wheat procurement and ensure timely payments to farmers.