LAHORE: The Punjab government holds the Sindh government responsible for the ongoing wheat and flour crises, saying the PPP government neither procured enough grain nor was releasing its stocks to control the buying panic in the market.

“The Sindh government is playing dirty politics to fail us (PTI governments in the Centre and Punjab) by creating wheat shortage through holding back 1.25 million tonnes of the procured grain and not releasing it in the market,” Punjab Information Minister Fayyazul Hasan Chohan said at a press conference here on Monday.

“Sindh did not procure a single grain in the previous season, while it picked only 0.2 million tonnes out of 0.5 million wheat quota from Passco (a federal entity for procuring and storing wheat particularly) in February only when the shortage of flour in Karachi and Hyderabad was highlighted in the media. And this season, it has procured only 1.25 million tonnes grain, but was not releasing it unlike Punjab, which has so far released 1.25 million tonnes to cater to the needs of not only Punjab, but also other parts of the country.”

Responding to a question about the sale of flour by chakkiwalas at higher rates, the minister said chakkis were not regulated by the government, but the market forces of demand and supply.

Answering a question about sedition cases against PML-N leaders, the minister said when the people, particularly those convicted or accused in corruption cases, spoke against state institutions, armed forces and security agencies in violation of the Constitution, they would be taken to task as per law. He added that “the corrupt” would not be offered any relief even if they moved the UN.

Published in Dawn, October 6th, 2020