No wheat shortage in province, KP Assembly told

PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly was on Monday told that there was no scarcity of wheat or wheat crisis in the province.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Minister for Food Zahir Shah Toru also informed the House that the last interim government had purchased thousands of metric tons of substandard and low-quality wheat from Pasco (Pakistan Agriculture Storage and Services Company). He said of this 77,000 metric tons was spoiled and no one was ready to purchase the wheat from government gowdons.

During the question-hour Jamiat Ulema Islam-F MPA Adnan Wazir claimed that a large scale embezzlement and irregularities were committed during wheat purchase by the present government.

The opposition MPA said thousands of metric tons of wheat were purchased from dealers and agents instead of farmers and growers. Zahir Shah informed the House that the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa produced about 1.4 million metric tons wheat per annum while the requirement of the total population of the province was about 5 million metric tons annually.

“The province has to purchase about 3.6m metric tons from Pasco, Punjab and open market and there was no special quota for the procurement of the wheat,” he added. The minister said that the present PTI-led government had purchased wheat from local farmers and opened markets in Punjab in a transparent manner.

“We purchased about 20,8000 metric tons wheat last season and almost all our official gowdowns have high quality and standard wheat at the moment,” he said and added that simple of the allegedly substandard wheat purchased by interim government had sent for laboratories test.

However, the opposition lawmakers insisted to refer the question for standing committee for detailed investigation that was declined by the treasury benches though voting. The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly, chaired by Speaker Babar Saleem Swati, also referred a question to the House Standing Committee related to mini hydropower projects or small dams initiated by last PTI government in the province.

Jamiat Ulema Islam-F MPA Rehana Ismail in her question claimed that there was no existence of small dams or mini hydro projects in Upper Dir whereas the previous government had claimed that about 316 projects or small dams had been completed in the first phase.

Provincial Minister Aftab Alam informed the House that about 28.9 megawatts electricity had been generated by the mini hydropower projects in Malakand and Hazara divisions while more small dams and mini hydro projects would be built in the second phase in the province.

The assembly speaker in his ruling also ordered that the movers should be included in the committee and those who were found involved in the misinformation or irregularities must be identified and punished.

The provincial assembly approved an adjournment motion on law and order situation and prevailing insecurity and unrest in the province. The motion was moved by Pakistan People’s Party MPA Ahmad Karim Kundi.

Awami National Party MPA Nisar Baz Khan, Pakistan Muslim League-N MPA Jalal Khan, Provincial Minister Fazl Hakim, PTI MPA Abdul Ghani Afridi and others spoke on the law and order situation in the province.