The Senate body on Food and Agriculture will probe the alleged wheat smuggling by the Frontier Constabulary (FC) from Qilla Abdullah in Balochistan and submit report to the House for taking necessary action.
The house that met with Senator Safdar Abbasi in the chair directed the Senate Standing Committee to probe the matter raised by Abdu Rahim Mandokhel on a point of order, who said that "the FC was involved in wheat smuggling as the country faces flour shortage." The Senator wanted the house to take notice by referring the issue to the concerned standing committee for probe.
"The Punjab government is not allowing us to procure wheat from its open market," complained Senator Ilyas Balour. Leader of the house Senator Raza Rabbani said Federal government was in picture about all the issues on wheat and would not allow any illegal activity.
Clarifying about the ban, he said that the Punjab government was ready to give more wheat to the other provinces, but the problem of transportation modality was an issue. He said the Punjab government wanted the wheat transportation through trains to avoid its smuggling, and assured to take up the issue before the Inter-Provincial Co-ordination Committee as well as with the Prime Minister.
The issue of wheat smuggling by the FC officials was referred to the Senate Standing Committee on Food and Agriculture on the demand of the mover and the committee was directed to probe it and submitted a detailed report so that the action against such officials could be recommended.
Meanwhile, the opposition staged a walked out from the house against manhandling of sacked employees of National Commission for Human Development (NCHD) by police in front of the Punjab Assembly, Lahore.
The issue was raised by Senator Jamal Leghari, who said that Punjab Police had been thrashing innocent employees of NCHD, protesting against being fired from their jobs. There are reports that NCHJD has sacked over 80,000 of its employees. The police also manhandled female protestors, he deplored as the chair directed Finance Minister Naveed Qamar, who is likely conclude debate on internal security situation on Friday to clarify the government position on the issue.