The wheat crisis – marked by delayed procurement, farmers’ protests and disruptions in the supply chain – continues to haunt the federal government. The Punjab government’s failure to procure wheat at a fixed rate of Rs3,900 per tonne in a timely manner, despite earlier commitments, has left farmers without adequate compensation and eroded trust in government. The subsequent arrests and raids conducted by the Punjab police further exacerbate tensions and undermine democratic principles of free expression and assembly. Exacerbating the issue further, middlemen and mafias are exploiting farmers by purchasing wheat at Rs2,900 per tonne, only to later sell it at higher prices.
The root of the deepening wheat crisis lies in the import of the commodity by the caretakers, and more recently by the sitting government, amazingly without Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif knowing. This has resulted in a huge oversupply. While Anwaar-ul Haq, the ex-caretaker PM, has laid blame on the provincial governments for overestimating the gap in demand and supply, the incumbent PM has suspended the secretary food security and ordered a probe – a customary practice unlikely to help the farmers who are compelled to gear up for protests. Nawaz Sharif, the ruling PML-N figurehead, has also taken notice of the issue, in what is being perceived as a populist move only to make his political presence felt.
Prime Minister Shehbaz had, before leaving for Saudi Arabia on April 27, directed PASSCO to begin lifting wheat stocks while raising the procurement limit to 1.8 million metric tons from 1.4. While the directive has not yet translated into action, it will hardly avert the crisis given that that the farmers currently hold an estimated 4 million metric tons of the grain, including 2.4 million metric tons by those of Punjab. With the farmers threatening nationwide rallies and sit-ins on highways and railway tracks, the federal government seems to be left with no other option but to inflict a loss on the national exchequer in order to relieve the farmers of the piles over piles of wheat bags.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 6th, 2024.
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