ISLAMABAD, Nov 21: Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said on Friday that wheat farmers should get fair returns as promised by the government.

Presiding over a meeting at the Prime Minister’s House to review the availability of wheat, rice, sugar and fertilisers and cotton production and their pricing, Mr Gilani urged officials concerned to ensure that government’s commitments were honoured.

The meeting had been called in the wake of reports about shortage of various commodities.

Mr Gilani directed the ministry of food to take immediate steps to ensure expeditious dispatch of imported wheat from Karachi to other parts of the country.

He said that provincial governments should be authorised to make their own arrangements for speedy transportation of wheat.

He also said that effective steps be taken to stop smuggling of wheat and urea fertiliser.

The prime minster also directed the ministry to accelerate the purchase of paddy through Passco.

The meeting decided that the ministry of finance would ensure adequate liquidity in the market to enable husking mills to quickly lift paddy from the market.

It decided that the ministry of commerce would devise a plan to increase rice export. The TCP, it was decided, would work out modalities to purchase rice in order to stabilise its price in the local market.

The ministry of industries was directed to ensure that sugar mills started sugarcane crushing immediately to avoid any future shortage.

It was decided that the TCP would consider the possibility of offloading about 200,000 metric tons of sugar in early December to maintain supply adequacy.

Setting the intervention price for 40kg of Phutti (seed cotton) at Rs1,465 with immediate effect, the meeting ordered the TCP to buy lint at this price.

The meeting also decided that the ministers of agriculture and commerce would take immediate steps to expedite urea import and ensure adequate supplies during the Rabi season.

—APP