Wheat, wheat everywhere…

The wheat crisis has thrown up a host of troubling questions that revolve around the persistent wisdom that in our governance system, the left hand seldom knows what the right hand is doing. Or, alternatively, one hand is engaging in manipulation undetected by the other.

The wheat crisis stems from two irreducible facts. One, the caretaker government headed by Anwaarul Haq Kakar was responsible for importing 3.5 million tonnes of wheat through the private sector costing Rs 370 billion between August 2023 and March 2024 although all the prognoses pointed to a bumper wheat crop this spring.

Of this 3.5 million tonnes imported wheat, 1.3 million tonnes was found to be fungus-infested and therefore not fit for human consumption. The rest was packed away in government godowns till they were literally bursting at the seams.

What this meant was that when the bumper wheat crop of 28-29 million tonnes this season arrived, the government simply did not have any place to store it, nor, arguably, the finances to purchase it at the officially declared support price of Rs 3,900 per 40 kilograms.

Hence the foot dragging by the provincial government of Punjab (the largest producer) in procuring the wheat from farmers. The result? Poor farmers are being forced to sell their harvested wheat at Rs 2,800-3,000 per 40 kilograms in the market.

The crisis in the wheat sector has drawn the wrath of peasant organisations. Pakistan Kissan Ittehad (PKI) President Khalid Mahmood Khokhar has accused a mafia of having profited from the unnecessary wheat import. Farmers have suffered a Rs 400 billion loss as a result and with no viable option left, have geared up to take to the streets with their tractor trolleys and cattle on May 10, 2024 (shades of the farmers’ protests in India!).

Mr Khokhar also perceptibly pointed out that unless the crisis was resolved, the farmers will not be able to cultivate cotton and rice and future wheat output could not escape being affected.

Pakistan Kisan Rabita Committee (PKRC) general secretary Farooq Tariq has placed the blame squarely on the caretaker government and demanded the arrest of former caretaker Prime Minister (PM) Anwaarul Haq Kakar, the bureaucrats and importers involved in the wheat scandal, while pressing the present government to compensate the growers badly hit by the import policy.

Responding to what could prove to be a crisis that could blow up in its face, the government of PM Shahbaz Sharif has set up an inquiry committee headed by the Cabinet Division Secretary to probe the wheat import scandal. The committee’s report is still awaited at the time of writing these lines but such inquiry committees headed by bureaucrats enjoy little credibility given their track record of obfuscation and sheltering the guilty.

The issue is touchy given that Anwaarul Haq Kakar is considered the blue-eyed boy of the establishment, which has rewarded him for services rendered by having a Senate seat allotted to him.

According to some commentators, bigger things were meant to be in store for Mr Kakar but matters have not panned out in the desired way. One set of speculations argues that Ishaq Dar’s inexplicable appointment as Deputy PM was a pre-emptive gambit since the position was one desired for Mr Kakar by his establishment backers.

When confronted with awkward questions about the wheat import debacle on his watch, Mr Kakar has dumped the whole blame in the basket of the provincial governments and their rendered information about the wheat stocks situation, which projected an alarming shortage, hence the ‘hurried’ import. Mr Kakar’s mea culpa beggars the imagination.

Does the federal government have no information about the wheat stocks in the country? Is it incapable of checking and double checking the data of the provincial governments? Are no records of all this available for perusal by the apex office of the federal government?

Nawaz Sharif, embarked on reactivating his role in the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and thereby the government he bestowed on younger brother Shahbaz Sharif, wants the government to take action without anyone responsible being able to get away scot-free, whatever their strong political clout, and to refer the matter to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) or Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to probe the scam.

However, the Shahbaz government seems reluctant to take strong action against those responsible, probably another indicator of his government’s reluctance to lock horns with the all-powerful establishment by putting their satrap Mr Kakar and others in the dock.

Here again emerges the difference in approach of the two brothers, Nawaz bold, Shehbaz collaborationist. They may well reconcile these ‘differences’ once again as they have been doing since 2022, but it does speak volumes for the not-so-hidden tussle inside the PML-N vis-à-vis the approach towards the establishment.

Whatever the outcome of the inquiry committee report, and there are grave doubts it will amount to much, the totally ridiculous and unnecessary import of wheat by the caretaker government smacks of mala fide corruption and vested interest that has robbed the farmers, particularly small landholders, of the fruits of their hard labour. Is there no justice to be had in this Mad Hatter’s Tea Party system in our benighted country?

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024