LAHORE: PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif has lashed out at the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf government for being totally missing in action while the condition of farmers grows more and more pitiable and miserable due to the fertiliser crisis.

“The people who provide food to the people are crying out for help like the victims of Murree while the government is nowhere to be seen. The entire country will face food shortages if the farmers are not helped immediately,” the National Assembly opposition leader said in a statement here on Saturday.

Even at insanely high prices, he said urea is not available to farmers as it has disappeared just like flour, sugar and gas under this PTI regime. “It will be better to provide emergency assistance to the farmers and ensure supply of urea later than to form a commission and make excuses,” he suggested.

Meanwhile, PML-N information secretary Marriyum Aurangzeb held the ‘corruption’ of Imran Khan and his ‘mafia’ responsible for the shortage of urea in Punjab.

“Farmers are running from pillar to post for the urea fertiliser despite spending huge sums of money. How will the country meet its wheat production targets if the fertiliser is not made available to farmers in time. DAP, which was priced at Rs2,400 during the PML-N era, is not available at even Rs10,000 today,” she said.

The former information minister said urea has gone up from Rs1,200 to Rs2,800 but Imran has nothing to offer to the farmers but lip service and sermons. This crisis is a repeat telecast of the sugar, flour, and LNG crises created by this Imran-led mafia regime, she lamented.

“It is a set pattern where an artificial crisis is created through hoarding, ill-advised export and smuggling after which people are made to pay insanely high prices through their nose because of the created shortage. This Imran-led mafia is profiteering while the farmers are suffering every single day. This Imran regime has turned respectable farmers of Pakistan into beggars,” she said.

Published in Dawn, January 30th, 2022