RAHIM YAR KHAN: The flour crisis in the country is a result of PTI’s Jahangir Tareen and Khusro Bakhtiar presenting misleading figures of export of 400,000 tonnes of wheat last year, which, in fact, only existed in documents and the two leaders earned Rs52 billion by spreading misinformation.

This was stated by PPP District General Secretary Chaudhry Jahanzeb in a press conference at the press club here on Saturday.

Jahanzeb said that only 50 days were left till the cultivation of fresh wheat crop and these leaders were planning import of 400,000 tonnes of wheat, which will directly affect the poor farmer’s produce. The federal government did not release Rs23bn of the National Finance Commission Award due to which the Sindh government could not procure wheat in 2019 according to its needs, he added.

He further said that if the government imported wheat even from a nearby country like Ukraine, it will cost it Rs1,875 per 40 kilogrammes that will further increase the flour rate. He alleged that Jahangir Tareen, Khusro Bakhtiar and Humayun Akhtar controlled 42 per cent of the sugar industry.

The PPP leader claimed that there were 78 flour mills in Rahim Yar Khan and only 27 were operational for five years, but last year the wheat supply was much better. Right now, 67 mills were operational and there was a wheat crisis.

Just two mills could fulfil the flour needs of the whole district and that was the reason most of the mills were sending flour to Sindh and Balochistan, he claimed.

Published in Dawn, January 26th, 2020