The failure of the Punjab Food Department and PASSCO to buy wheat from farmers who have just harvested a bumper crop, and he is cursing both incomprehension and anger. The problem lay in the decision by the caretaker government to allow the import of 3.6 million tonnes of wheat, which arrived at the time of harvest. The result is that PASSCO, on the recommendation of the Punjab Food Department, has filled its go down with imported wheat, and has no money to make further purchases. One result has been the fall in the wheat price, which is now lower than the support price. As farmers’ protests across the border have shown, a government tampers with support prices at its peril.
The problem for the ruling party is which Punjab CM to sacrifice. PML(N) incumbent Maryam Nawaz is feeling the heat from the farmers, and would like to see the blame shifted to the caretaker CM, whose administration recommended the imports, and which handled the previous crop, after having been in office since January 2023. Party supremo Nawaz Sharif would like a thorough investigation of who did what and when. The federal government faces a number of difficulties. The caretaker PM, Anwarul Haq Kakar, has already vociferously denied any responsibility, saying that the imports were based on the provincial food departments estimates, caretaker Punjab CM Mohsin Naqvi is part of the federal government as Interior Minister. The caretaker Finance and food security Ministers, Shamshad Akhtar and Kausar Abdullah Malik, should also be interviewed. However, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif seems reluctant even to interview anyone, though he has suspended the federal Food Security Secretary. Apart from caretaker ministers, officials are also involved, but are being left alone.
Wheat imports were also problematic for the PTI government, and perhaps rightly so. After all, wheat is the country’s food staple. However, the attempts to cover the scandal are unenlightening, and lead to the impression that a cover-up is being conducted. There is an impression that the beneficiaries are not known. The federal government should have a thorough investigation conducted by a neutral agency, so that those responsible for playing fast and loose with the nation’s food supply can be identified, and rendered liable to any criminal proceedings that might lie. Not only will it merely encourage a repetition if the culprits go unpunished this time, but impunity will only encourage the whisperings the government is trying to suppress by ignoring the issue.
