Murad orders crackdown on hoarders, purchase of more wheat from Passco.

Byline: Hasan Mansoor

KARACHI -- Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah on Monday asked the relevant authorities to raid the warehouses across the province where wheat had been hoarded and take action against those involved in it.

Keeping in view the artificial wheat shortage created by hoarders in the province, he ordered crackdown on the traders to ensure illegally stored grain could be floated in the market to stabilise the price of flour.

Besides, he asked the officials to procure more wheat from the Pakistan Agricultural Storage and Services Corporation (Passco) to stem the worsening flour crisis that has gravely affected the whole country.

'We'll never permit anyone to hoard wheat etc,' said Mr Shah while presiding over a meeting at the CM House.

Ministers for food and agriculture Hari Ram Kishorilal and Ismail Rahu, Adviser to the CM on Law Murtaza Wahab, Chief Secretary Mumtaz Shah, the principal secretary to the CM and secretaries for finance, food and forests attended the meeting.

'Sindh only province with functioning local government system'

The chief minister said he had reports that some traders had hoarded wheat in their warehouses that increased the price of the staple in the market.

'We can't [leave] poor people of this province at the mercy of hoarders,' he said and asked the chief secretary to start an operation against hoarders under the guidance of commissioners concerned and whatever force, police or Rangers, they needed must be provided to them.

Briefing the chief minister, Secretary Food Laiq Ahmed said as on Jan 13, the stock position was 405,938.549 tonnes of wheat lying in the six regions. They included Karachi 10,374.333 tonnes, Hyderabad 24,948 tonnes, Mirpurkhas 1,615.336 tonnes, Benazirabad 58,524.593 tonnes, Sukkur 179,709.477 tonnes and Larkana 130,766.81 tonnes. Out of which the food ministry had released 35,805.607 tonnes.

Rs43 per kg

The chief minister was told that on Jan 13 the flour price was Rs43 per kg in all regions. The chief minister said at present about 300,000 tonnes of wheat was still in the warehouses of the food ministry and the provincial government released 130,000 tonnes of wheat in the city every month.

'We have to release wheat till the next two months, up to March 15, when fresh crops are harvested and land in the market,' he said. He added the provincial government had to make the arrangements accordingly.

The meeting was told that 77,000 wheat bags procured from Passco had been released...