Wheat shortage

EDITORIAL: It is gross incompetence and mismanagement by central and provincial governments alike, even more than the glaring demand-supply imbalance, that is responsible for the worst wheat crisis in the country’s history.

Every day hundreds of thousands of people queue up for hours on end to receive subsidised wheat and flour promised by the government, only to return empty handed as the price of staple food continues to break all records.

Worse still, there are reports of stampedes and grave injuries, including at least one death (in Mirpurkhas), as security officials dispatched with flour consignments are simply overwhelmed by wave upon wave of people desperate for the commodity.

This crisis was building for months in light of lower production – made much worse by last year’s devastating floods – so authorities have no excuses for getting caught off guard like this. TCP (Trading Corporation of Pakistan) has imported two consignments carrying about 124,000 metric tons of wheat, but one is currently under discharge at Port Qasim while the other is still waiting for a berth. So it’s not clear when this additional supply will rationalise prices in the local market, and to what extent.

As things stand, the Balochistan government has announced that it has effectively run out of wheat. Meanwhile, Sindh and KP (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) are complaining that Punjab, which produces almost three quarters of the country’s wheat, is restricting the commodity’s movement across its borders.

Of late, there are news reports that Punjab has allowed a limited quantity of wheat to be sent to Balochistan. And then, there are those usual hoarders that never fail to exploit all such crises to inflate their own profits.

The result is that middle and lower income classes all across the country are on the verge of being completely deprived of wheat and wheat flour, without which a lot of families will not be able to survive.

Let’s not forget that these are already times of unprecedented inflation with food prices, especially, leading the way. And ordinary people could not have been treated any worse by their federal and provincial representatives.

Just days ago Food Minister Tariq Bashir Cheema assured the nation that there was sufficient wheat stock even though provinces were not releasing enough grain to flour mills.

Now it turns out that mills have been forced to pick wheat from the open market at twice the government’s promised rate. The price effect is naturally being transferred down the line, making a joke of official claims to provide subsidised flour to consumers.

It is used to be the parties at Centre and in provinces playing politics all the time to get the upper hand, even at the cost of others falling short on essential service delivery to the people. But for this ugly slugfest to continue even if it means depriving people of their staple food, and letting hoarders to run amok because they are too consumed in their own games, is simply going too far.

Stampedes and scuffles breaking out wherever wheat is being sold make for a very ominous sign about the future, because this problem is clearly going to get much worse in the days to come. Citing the continuous price fluctuations, always to the upside, the Muttahida Nanbai Association (MNA) has decided to discontinue its business in Punjab and KP, further adding to the people’s many miseries.

If the federal government cannot read the writing on the wall, especially when it is about people running out of something as basic and necessary as food, and provincial governments know no better than catering to their own selfish interests, then they must at least be prepared for the wrath of the masses. It’s a shame that governments invariably make bad situations worse, and the people are often left to figure things out on their own.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023