ISLAMABAD: The government will take all out measures to ensure availability of sufficient wheat and flour to the masses throughout the year, Prime Minister's Adviser on Finance and Revenue Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh said on Monday.

The adviser, while chairing a meeting to review the situation, availability and future demand of wheat and flour in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, also decided to take appropriate measures to ensure sufficient supply and availability of wheat and flour in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa in the coming months.

The meeting reviewed the current wheat situation in the province in detail, particularly existing stocks in the public sector and requirement for the province until the next harvest in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.

Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Chief Secretary Dr Kazim Niaz told the meeting that the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa government had around 0.6 million tonnes of wheat in its stocks, while it had recently procured 100,000 tonnes of wheat from the PASSCO, and another 100,000 from it was in the process of being carried off to the province.

Additionally, the meeting was also informed that the provincial authorities planned to procure another 300,000 tonnes of wheat from the PASSCO for which they were already in touch with the body.

Similarly, they had plans to import 300,000 tonnes of wheat.

The chief secretary said that the provincial government aimed to have at least 1.5 million tonnes of wheat in its own stocks, and the same quantity was likely to be supplied by the private parties to the local market to meet the estimated three million tonnes of wheat requirement for the province until the start of the next harvest.

Adviser to the Prime Minister on Commerce, Textile and Investment Abdul Razak Dawood, Finance Minister Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Taimur Saleem Jhagra, Chief Secretary Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Dr Kazim Niaz, Secretary Finance Naveed Kamran Baloch, Secretary National Food Security and Research Omar Hamid Khan were also present.

Prime Minister Imran Khan during a recent meeting on availability of wheat and flour in the country also directed Chief Secretary Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan to strictly deal with the menace of smuggling of wheat and wheat flour.

The premier also wanted that sufficient availability of wheat and flour must be ensured at uniform prices across the country.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020