Centre conspiring to create wheat scarcity in Punjab: CM

LAHORE: Punjab Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi has expressed deep concern over the refusal of federal government to grant permission to the provincial government to import wheat.

Presiding over a meeting on the available stock of wheat and other matters, Elahi said the federal government had denied permission to the Punjab government to import wheat but Sindh and other provinces were getting wheat being imported by the Centre. Matters pertaining to urea, phosphate, seeds of wheat and subsidy on wheat being imported came under discussion.

According to a handout, the chief minister said the federal government had imported wheat earlier also but it did not give a share to Punjab and now denied the provincial government the permission to import one million metric tonne wheat on a self-payment basis.

“The Punjab government by taking into consideration public needs sought permission to import wheat according to the constitutional and legal way but the federal government refused to grant permission. The attitude of the federal government towards the people of Punjab is not only regrettable but also condemnable,” he added.

“Shehbaz Sharif is conspiring to take revenge on the people of Punjab for wiping out the PMLN from the province and a nefarious attempt is being made to create wheat scarcity in Punjab.” He revealed that 16,000 metric tonne wheat was still being provided to Islamabad from Punjab. “The stock of wheat is comparatively less in Punjab during the current year due to various reasons and import of wheat in Punjab has become inevitable due to floods and other reasons,” he maintained.