ISLAMABAD: The Senate Standing Committee on National Food Security and Research on Wednesday asked the Sindh government to earmark land for Pakistan Agricultural Storage and Supplies Corporation (Passco) to build storage facility for wheat stocks.

The committee meeting was chaired by its chairman Senator Syed Muzaffar Hussain Shah. Senator Shah said the Sindh Chief Secretary cannot be contacted on the issue. However, Sindh Food Secretary who attended the Senate committee meeting was asked to take up the matter with the chief secretary.

The committee expressed serious concerns over the non-responsive attitude of the Sindh chief secretary and directed him to submit a comprehensive report on the issues raised by the Passco.

Passco Managing Director Muhammad Khan Khichi narrated the difficulties being faced while dealing with the administration of Sindh government.

If the Sindh government agrees to sell Passco’s wheat to its flour mills, the provincial government will save a huge amount in terms of subsidy on account of cost differentials – cost of purchased wheat and cost of wheat being supplied to flours mills besides gaining much needed political mileage, he said.

Senator Shah said several letters were written to the chief secretary pertaining to the issues raised by Passco including the provision of state land for construction of storage facility and disposal of its wheat stocks from the province.

Senator Shah said that it was a matter of great concern that the chief secretary did not respond to the committee or attended the meeting.

The committee directed the chief secretary to submit a report before it about the measures being taken in this regard. The Passco chief informed the committee that wheat procurement drive.

Since harvesting of wheat in Sindh begins in mid-March, Passco launched the wheat procurement operation during the first week of April and has completed 96pc wheat procurement which is about 95,264 tonnes wheat, he added.

Published in Dawn, May 18th, 2017