PPP’s govt synonymous with food security: Bilawal Bhutto

Islamabad: Chairman Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Bilawal Bhutto Zardari slammed the federal government for raising the purchase price of wheat from Rs 1,400 to Rs 1,800 instead of Rs 2,000.

In a statement, the Chairman PPP said that the federal government may keep a subsidy price of Rs 1,800 for wheat, but the PPP would not allow oppression of farmers in Sindh and the relief price will be Rs 2,000.

He said that the government should stop lying about declaring 28 per cent increase in the subsidy price of wheat from the old price of Rs 1,400 to 1800 as 400 per cent. Sindh has increased the purchase price to Rs. 2000 which is an increase of 42 per cent.

He also said that today, for the first time in the history of the country, the support price of wheat is not the same in all the provinces. Imran Khan is responsible for this oppression on the farmers of Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan.

The prices of everything from fertilizers, seeds and pesticides to agricultural machinery, electricity have gone up by 150 per cent and an increase in wheat subsidy of Rs 1,800 is an injustice to farmers. Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari also said that the federal government wanted the purchasing price of wheat to be Rs. 1600 but when the PPP fought for the farmers, the federal government increased the price a little. He reminded the people that the federal government created two wheat crises in three years.

Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari sharply criticized Imran Khan’s government and said that it is a result of the poor plan of the PTI government that today only two to two and a half weeks of wheat stock is left in the country. If the crisis is not dealt with, the country may once again face a shortage of flour, he said, adding that the wheat crop landed in Punjab in May last year and more than 10 million tonnes of wheat disappeared in July in Punjab. Imran Khan should ask his friends how the artificial crisis was created by smuggling wheat to Afghanistan. Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said that it is a shame that Pakistan, a wheat producing country, is importing wheat from abroad today.

Chairman PPP said that one of the reasons for the devastation of the economy is that the ruler of the agricultural country of Pakistan is unfortunately not even familiar with the alphabets of the word ‘agriculture’. Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari referring to the self-sufficiency of wheat in the PPP government (2008-13), said that the PPP federal government had made the country a wheat exporting country in just one year. The PPP government had increased relief price by 47% in the first year and 52% in the second year.