The Senate Standing Committee on Interior on Thursday asked the respective provincial governments to launch a crackdown against the hoarders and smugglers of wheat, causing an artificial food shortage.
At the same time, a senior official of Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) admitted that ban on the free movement of wheat within the country is unconstitutional and there is no such provision even in the FBR rules.
The committee and the officials from the smaller provinces, particularly, from NWFP and Balochistan expressed serious concern over the frequent imposition of ban by the Punjab government on the free movement of wheat to other provinces causing serious food crisis.
The issue was raised and discussed at length in a meeting of Senate Standing Committee on Interior chaired by Senator Talha Mehmood, which was attended by committee members, besides senior officials from provincial food and home departments, senior police and ranger officers of all the provinces including Northern Areas.
The committee took serious note on the failure of the Law Enforcement Agencies (LEAs) to stop the wheat hoarding and smuggling that has caused shortage of 'wheat flour' particularly in NWFP and Balochistan.
The committee also took notice of the out of turn promotion of police officers in Islamabad, Sindh and NWFP, asking the respective provincial authorities to provide complete details of the promotion within two weeks, mentioning its criteria and reasons.
It was also recommended to make effective co-ordination among the police of all the provinces particularly Punjab and NWFP to control the rising trend of vehicles snatching and abducting for ransom.
DIG Rawalpindi range, Nasir Durrani pointed out that there is no check-post on the motorway from Islamabad to Peshawar which is helping for the car-lifers taking the snatched vehicles to the tribal areas, recommending establishing check posts on the motorway.
A Senior Joint Secretary of the Interior Ministry informed the committee that the ministry is working on introducing effective tracking system of mobile SIMS and number-plats of vehicles to check crime. The committee also asked the Islamabad administration to make effective their intelligence system for timely tracking down the terrorists instead of creating hurdles at different places.
Senator Abdul Raziq said that police in NWFP is in a state of war, who not only facing life threats from the terrorists but their family members are even not secure.
He said that over 200 police and FC personnel have so far resigned due to insecurity. He recommended for a special risk package for those police officials and FC personnel deployed in NWFP. Otherwise, he said, nobody is ready to continue his job in high risk areas.
Senator Saadia Abbasi said that Police Order-2002 has lot of flaws, which needs to be repealed. She expressed her concern over the large number of security forces deployed at every nook and corner of the federal capital.
She said that the barricade placed at various points of the capital is depicting the city as a war zone. She asked Kamran Lashari, Chief Commissioner Islamabad to bring the issue to the notice of Rehman Malik, advisor to Prime Minister on Interior, who always remains absent in the committee meeting.
Later, addressing a press conference, Senator Talha Mehmood said that after the briefing it was clear that there is no shortage of wheat in the country but artificial crisis has been created due to hoarding and smuggling to Afghanistan.
He said that the committee also ordered the Food Ministry to provide the details of export and import of wheat and its rates during the last year. He said that the committee has ordered the provincial governments to crackdown against the hoarders and smugglers.
He said the committee has also asked the NWFP and Sindh government to provide details of out of turn promotion of the police officials, adding that all those would be demoted to their original position if found promoted out of turn.
Talha Mehmood further informed that the Interior Ministry has taken a strict notice of increase in kidnapping. He said that only 20 percent such cases are reported. He asked the respective authorities to present its report on the issue in the next meeting that is going to be held after three weeks.