KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has said the federal government had created shortage of wheat last year by releasing it just after its harvesting in March and then imported at higher rates and now they were repeating the same scenario.

He said this while talking to media after offering condolence over the death of legendary actor Umer Sharif at his residence on Saturday.

He was accompanied by Advisor Murtaza Wahab.

To a question, the CM said that last year the PTI government had released wheat just after harvesting in March.

“When wheat is harvested its stocks circulate in the market in abundance at reasonable rate and when the stocks start dwindling the government begins to release wheat to control the prices,” he said and added the wheat was harvested in the country in March and released in October every year.

He said that the PTI government again released wheat in Punjab and other provinces just after harvesting the new crops, therefore wheat stocks disappeared from the market and prices started going up.

“Surprisingly, they kept us pressing for releasing the wheat to the millers but we had refused and now in October we would start releasing the wheat and our stocks were enough to meet our requirement till the arrival of new crop in March 2022,” he said.

The federal government was not ready to give Rs 5000 per bag price to the local growers but now they were importing the wheat at a price of Rs 6600 per bag,he added.

The CM said that Umer Sharif was an asset of the country, and his services would always be remembered.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021