ISLAMABAD: Adviser to Prime Minister on Finance and Revenue Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh has said that the government will take all-out measures to ensure the availability of sufficient wheat and flour to the masses throughout the year.
He made this statement while chairing a meeting at the Finance Division to review the situation, availability and future demand of wheat and flour in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
Adviser to the Prime Minister on Commerce, Textile and Investment Abdul Razak Dawood, KP Finance Minister Taimur Saleem Jhagra, Chief Secretary Dr Kazim Niaz, Federal Finance Secretary Naveed Kamran Baloch, and National Food Security & Research Secretary Omar Hamid Khan were also present on the occasion.
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. It decided to take appropriate measures to ensure sufficient supply and availability of wheat and flour in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in the coming months.
KP Chief Secretary Dr Kazim Niaz informed the meeting that the provincial government had about 0.6 million tonnes of wheat in its stocks while it had recently procured 100,000 tonnes of wheat from PASSCO and another 100,000 from it was in the process of being carried off to the province.
He said 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 the provincial government aimed to have at least 1.5 million tonnes of wheat in its stocks, and the same quantity was likely to be supplied by the private parties to the local market to meet the wheat requirement of an estimated 3 million tonnes for the province until the start of the next harvest.
