ISLAMABAD, April 28: The senior vice-president of the ruling PML-Q, Syed Kabir Ali Wasti, on Wednesday made a frontal attack on Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali for what he called his 'ineptness' to run the affairs of the government.

In an interview to a private TV channel and later talking to Dawn on Wednesday, Mr Wasti said the prime minister should step down to save the country from further crisis and embarrassment and the party from ruin.

Mr Wasti cited the recent Australian wheat scam as a glaring example of the 'failure and mismanagement' and 'ineptness' of the government. He attributed the scam to a nexus between profiteers, hoarders and some government functionaries due to which the country had to face the wheat shortage.

He said on the one hand the government rejected the Australian wheat and allowed it to be sold in the Middle East market and on the other it placed a ban on the movement of the commodity in Sindh and the NWFP creating a wheat crisis in the two provinces.

Mr Wasti urged President Gen Pervez Musharraf to initiate an inquiry into the scam so that 'real' culprits could be unmasked. He accused the prime minister of damaging the PML-Q by creating groups within the party and by not attending the party offices due to which the party workers had become disenchanted.