Subsidising Wheat.

The wheat price situation in Gilgit-Baltistan perfectly reflects the larger problem of fiscal policymaking and economic manAagement on part of both federal and provincial governments. The government has already been roundly criticised for the deciAsion to distribute free wheat flour in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and PunAjab. It is clear that this is a populist decision meant to appease votAers ahead of the elections, whenever they take place.

The government has received a lot of justified criticism against its economic policymaking, and the overreliance on subsidies-many of them untargeted-during a record-breaking period of financial crunch has been deemed unwise by many experts. In Gilgit-BaltisAtan, the provincial government has already spent the allotted Rs 8 billion for this subsidy, and not rationalising the wheat price would now be tapping into funds that the government does not have. This money has only managed to procure 90,000 tonnes of wheat for GB due to the increased prices seen this year.

There is no denying that the situation remains critical and staAple items...