(December 28-2022)
Chairman of National Business Group Pakistan, President Pakistan Businessmen and Intellectuals Forum, and All Karachi Industrial Alliance, and former provincial minister Mian Zahid Hussain on Wednesday said the country has entered a serious crisis of food security after inflation and floods.
The price of flour has increased by 40% across the country, which has increased the price of roti by 5 to 7 rupees in different parts of the country, he said.
Mian Zahid Hussain said that due to the high cost of flour, the majority of the people cannot bring ample food to the table which is the result of the bad economic situation and smuggling.
Talking to the business community, the veteran business leader said that after the destruction of the agricultural sector by the floods, drainage of water could not be ensured due to which wheat sowing has been delayed.
After this disaster, the balance of demand and supply of wheat along with cotton and other crops also deteriorated but timely imports were not ensured due to a deficiency of foreign exchange in the country.
Due to the delay in imports, the profiteers and hoarders got an opportunity to make billions of rupees overnight by exploiting the masses.
At present, the poor people of Pakistan are forced to eat flour that is 30% more expensive than the wheat available in the international market.
There was already a difference of twelve to thirteen hundred rupees between the government rate of wheat and the market rate in Sindh and Punjab which has now increased to more than two thousand rupees, he informed.
In addition to the delay in wheat import, the current crisis includes factors such as the reduction of wheat supply to flour mills by the government, a statement by a political figure about the reduction of wheat stock in Sindh and smuggling of wheat to Afghanistan.
He said that the government is trying to improve the situation by raiding the hoarders which have never helped.
Mian Zahid Hussain further said that the immediate solution to the current situation is to fully comply with the agreement made with the IMF. The difference between the interbank and market rate of the dollar has to be eliminated. By artificially restraining the rising value of the dollar, exports, remittances, FBR revenue, and foreign exchange reserves are rapidly shrinking, which is extremely dangerous for Pakistan’s weak economy.
