Peshawar – Adviser to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister on Finance Muzzammil Aslam on Saturday blamed what he described as the Punjab government’s policy failures for the country’s worsening wheat crisis, claiming Pakistan was facing record wheat and flour prices only three months after the harvest.
In a statement, Aslam said the current crisis was the third major disruption to wheat supplies during the four years of the Shehbaz Sharif government. He alleged that public attention was being diverted from the issue by focusing on the petroleum levy.
He said wheat was currently selling for around Rs11,600 per 100kg from Karachi to Peshawar, while retail prices had reached approximately Rs115 per kilogram for wheat and between Rs130 and Rs150 per kilogram for flour. By comparison, he said, flour had been available at Rs65 to Rs70 per kilogram in 2022.
Aslam maintained that despite the sharp increase in market prices, wheat growers were facing severe financial hardship because of rising production costs, particularly electricity, fertiliser and diesel. He also claimed that Pakistan was increasingly being classified among food-insecure countries.
The adviser further alleged that Punjab had imposed an undeclared restriction on the movement of wheat and flour to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. He claimed that attempts to transport wheat from Sindh through Balochistan had also encountered obstacles. According to Aslam, Chief Minister Suhail Afridi, the provincial government and the chief secretary had repeatedly raised the issue with both the federal and Punjab governments.
He said the provincial Finance Department had released Rs15.6 billion to the Food Department for wheat procurement. He added that the supply of 150,000 tonnes of wheat from the Pakistan Agricultural Storage and Services Corporation (PASSCO) to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa would begin shortly, while a further agreement had been finalised for an additional 50,000 tonnes.
Aslam said Khyber Pakhtunkhwa produced only about 25 per cent of its annual wheat requirement, making it heavily dependent on supplies from Punjab. He added that provincial wheat stocks were expected to exceed 350,000 tonnes, fully utilising the storage capacity of government warehouses. According to him, these would be the largest wheat reserves in the province’s history, accumulated without resorting to borrowing.
He also said Chief Secretary Shahab Ali Shah and Secretary Food Shah Mahmood were working to stabilise prices by supplying 70,000 tonnes of wheat to the private sector.
Concluding his statement, Aslam claimed Pakistan had never experienced such a severe wheat crisis within the first three months of the wheat season during its 78-year history.
