National Assembly likely to reopen stock market crash probe

31 Mar, 2008

The National Assembly is likely to constitute a special committee to reopen the investigation of March 2005 stock market scandal that deprived thousands of small investors of billions of rupees.
A number of legislators filed a motion in the National Assembly Secretariat and requested that a special committee should be constituted to re-launch an investigation into the market crash, PML (N) MNA from Jhelum Muhammad Asad Khan told Business Recorder on Sunday.
Meanwhile, four legislators submitted an adjournment motion on terrorism, wheat and sugarcane crises in the National Assembly. Asad said that the motion was expected to come up for debate in the next session. It has been alleged in the motion that the previous government was responsible for the wheat crisis.
There were some conspirators with the PML (Q) government who worked against the interests of wheat growers, the motion said, which was moved by four PML (N) legislators. Besides Asad, the movers include Abdul Majeed from Bhakkar, Javed Husnain from Sargodha and Bashir Awan from Khushab.
The legislators said there was a dire need that the scandal should be reopened for fresh investigation. According to the movers, the scandal was the result of organised corruption with the covert and active support of government institutions.
In their adjournment motion, they said that in wheat season 2007, the government purchased wheat from farmers at Rs 425 per 40 kg. The same wheat, according to the movers, was sold in the market at Rs 1200/40 kg. Abdul Majeed told reporters that the wheat was exported at a price of Rs 12,000 to 14,000 per ton, while the government imported wheat at Rs 24,000 per ton by spending a huge amount from the public exchequer.

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