The Upper House of the Parliament Tuesday decided to take up the issue of the recent wheat and flour crises in the Committee of the Whole, while the report of the Senate Standing Committee on National Food Security and Research primarily held the Sindh government as well as the Punjab government responsible for the crises.
During the Senate session, Senate Standing Committee on National Food Security and Research Chairman Muzaffar Hussain Shah laid the report of the standing committee on wheat and flour crises.
Taking the floor, Shah said, the Sindh and Punjab governments did not make timely procurements of the wheat, which eventually led to the wheat crisis. If this trend continued, severe wheat and flour crises would hit the country in the years to come, he said.
Leader of the House in Senate Shibli Faraz hailed the report. "This is a significant report. Muzaffar Hussain Shah deserves appreciation for investigating in detail the causes of the wheat and flour crises, identifying the reasons and making necessary recommendations. Full marks to him and his committee. We would convey to the federal government the recommendations made in this report and make sure that these recommendations are implemented," he said.
Taking a jibe at the PPP and its Sindh government, Faraz said, "Those who were making a lot of hue and cry over wheat and flour crises are the ones identified in this report as responsible for the crises. They are actually part of the problem."
Leader of the Opposition in Senate Raja Zafarul Haq said the matter needed to be probed thoroughly and it should be taken up from the forum of the Committee of the Whole. "The Committee of the Whole has the representation of the entire House. A forum like this should be relied upon to comprehensively investigate the recent wheat and flour crises, its causes, elements behind this crisis, and fix responsibility accordingly." Chairman Senate Sadiq Sanjrani agreed with the proposal and said that the matter be taken up by the Committee of the Whole.
Mushahidullah Khan from Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) strongly criticised the federal government for wheat and flour crises. "Regardless of what the Senate committee has recommended in its report about wheat and flour crises, as a matter of fact, the FIA (Federal Investigation Agency) has also probed the matter and has identified three culprits, two males and a female, who are behind the crises," Khan said without naming anyone.
"But since the FIA is currently headed by a blue-eyed officer of the federal government, the inquiry report has been hushed up," he said referring to the FIA's investigation report not shared with the Senate.
On February 17, the Senate passed a resolution condemning the wheat and flour crises in the country. The House also urged the federal government to make public, the FIA's inquiry report on the matter to "identify the main culprits".
"This House condemns the recent wheat and flour crises in the country, this unprecedented rise in the prices of both commodities and the resultant record inflationary trend in the country has broken the back of the masses, which clearly shows the non-serious attitude, incompetence and negligence of the incumbent government, and its inability to provide relief to the people," said the resolution moved by senators from various opposition parties during the Senate session.
It demanded that, "The government should immediately place the inquiry report of the FIA about current wheat crisis before the Senate so that vulnerable people of Pakistan will be able to identify the main culprits relating to the crises."
Meanwhile, the opposition senators on Tuesday strongly criticised the government ministers for not attending the Senate proceedings. At the question hour, during the Senate session, the opposition senators sought reply from Interior Minister Ijaz Shah on a number of queries concerning the Interior Ministry.
However, the interior minister was not present in the Senate session, which drew opposition's ire. "This is a habitual practice that the ministers do not take the House seriously. We have so many questions but the interior minister is not here to answer. If the government is not taking our questions seriously, what is the purpose of the question hour," said Zafarul Haq, the leader of the opposition in the Senate.
The chairman Senate also expressed his annoyance. "Swati sahib, where are your ministers? Now you would stand up and start giving explanations to justify their absence. This is just unacceptable," he told Parliamentary Affairs Minister Azam Swati.
The leader of the opposition announced to stage a walkout against the minister's absence from the House proceedings as opposition left the hall. The chairman Senate directed the ruling party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)'s Chief Whip Sajjad Hussain Turi to bring the opposition back in the House, which, he did, and the House proceedings started again before the session was adjourned till 3pm Wednesday (March 4).
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