'Time is money' is an old cliché that the provincial parliamentarians are not familiar with while they cost the provincial exchequer Rs 10.2 million to debate on wheat procurement that should have been done a few months back during the one-day session of Punjab Assembly on Monday.
It is an irony that when the Punjab government was formulating wheat procurement policy for 2011, no input was taken from the House, and when it is being executed the parliamentarians are debating the issue. What good the suggestion and criticism would be now when the government has already started wheat procurement in the province? questioned many parliamentarians.
Moreover, the 'chosen people' also took the liberty of playing their favourite game of mudslinging during the debate on wheat. Both treasury and opposition benches wasted no opportunity in showing verbal hostility against each other. Many opposition parliamentarians deliberately detracted from the subject and targeted Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif with heavy criticism. The session was called by the Opposition benches. Judging from their remarks during the debate, they had called the session for 'CM-bashing'.
Leader of the Opposition 'Raja' Riaz was the architect of 'CM-bashing' who lambasted Punjab Chief Minister for suggesting to make Karachi a new province. He rejected the division of Sindh and demanded from Shahbaz Sharif to seek apology from the nation. He said that Sindh has already suffered a lot; it has received dead bodies of two Prime Ministers and nothing further is acceptable. "The parties having not a single seat in Sindh should avoid issuing such statements. The PML-N leadership should follow the advice of Javed Hashmi, and Sharif brothers should tender apology for supporting a dictator," he added.
He came hard on the Chief Minister for leaving the farmers high and dry at an important period when harvesting was in progress and said that not a single storage centre was established after the recent flood. "A target of procuring 3.5 million to 4 million tons of wheat was a sheer mockery with the farmers of a fertile land like Punjab," he said.
According to him, every grower was aware of the fact that at least 40 to 60 maunds of wheat is cultivated at an area covering one acre but the government was 'predicting' crop at an average of 20 maunds per acre, which clearly showed that they had no plan to procure complete amount of wheat from the farmers. It was the duty of the government to procure even a single grain of wheat but its intentions were clear that it wouldn't buy more that 2 million tons from farmers, thus once again putting a huge amount of the crop at risk. Exploitation of the farmers should be stopped, he said.
Riaz also criticised the CM for continuing a solo flight in the province. He said one could not expect any positive results from the government when its CM does not trust his own elected representatives. He also pointed out that there was no use in giving suggestion to the Punjab Food Minister or to the PML-N parliamentarians since they have no say in front of the bureaucracy. There is only one-man show in PML-N, he added.
He also showed dissatisfaction over the distribution of gunny bags among farmers. He claimed that the government was distributing it with the help of PML-N workers and they were earning commission from farmers. Probably this amount would be used by Sharifs for there next election campaign, he added.
He ridiculed the CM by calling him a 'Mughal Prince' for spending billions of rupees on the construction of a flyover at Kalma Chowk, which in his opinion, should have been spent on construction of wheat storages in Punjab. Other PPP legislators also took part in the debate but remained on the theme set by Riaz. They had nothing to say that was worth noticing and only focused on 'CM-bashing'.
Mohsin Leghari of PML-Q also expressed dissatisfaction over the steps taken by Punjab and Centre for the welfare of farmers. He said incompetence of the government will cause the farmers of Punjab a loss of at least Rs 70 billion. He went on to criticise the government for setting a target of 3 million tons against a conservative crop estimates of 22.5 million tons, a mere 15 percent of the expected crop. He also said the Punjab government was just focusing towards the benefit of a middleman and paying no heed towards growers, which is the true force playing in food security of our country. He said the government should focus to revise its strategy to facilitate growers. He also criticised the food department and middleman nexus, which was fleecing the poor farmers. "Wheat harvesting started in the south of Punjab about 15 days back and availability of gunny bags and procurement has not started yet, and the poor farmer is forced to sell to the middleman at a much lower price," he added.
He requested the government to increase its purchase target and make it easier for the farmers to get gunny bags. He also recommended formation of public private partnerships of flourmills, farmer co-operatives, farmer organisations and bank consortiums to form purchase and storage facilities across the province. This, he said, will ensure a fair price for the farmer and would save the government billions it loses due to corruption and mismanagement of the food department.
The PML-N response to the opposition's 'CM-bashing' came from Punjab Food Minister Ghafoor to conclude the debate. Rather than giving a policy statement after a general discussion, which a minister should do, he lambasted the PPP leadership for joining hands with those who according to him are the killers of Jamia Hafsa. He also said the PML-N-led government was not keen to keep any rotten egg in its basket, especially those who have looted the Hajis (pilgrims) and backed drone attacks, which have claimed hundreds of innocent lives.
He also rebuffed the allegation of the opposition benches of having no wheat procurement policy. He said they have done all homework and after a thorough working a policy was formulated for maximum wheat procurement and facilitation to farmers. "The Punjab government has completed all arrangements and if the PPP wants to bring some changes in wheat procurement strategy then they should talk to the Federal government, as wheat procurement is a federal subject and the provinces just follow the centre in this regard," he added.
Feeling the heat from the treasury benches, a PPP legislator pointed out quorum to escape from the Minister's hostile remarks. It was interesting to note that it was the opposition benches that had requisitioned the session and the very same benches opted to 'quorum-busting' tactic to escape the wrath of treasury benches. On account of lack of quorum, the acting speaker prorogued the House for indefinite period.