Wheat scandal
\n\u201cPML-N leaders will hide their faces if I talk about Form 47,\u201d ex-PM tells Hanif Abbasi
\nISLAMABAD
\nFormer caretaker prime minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar got engaged in a verbal spat with Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Hanif Abbasi over the ongoing wheat crisis in the country.
\nThe incident took place on Friday at a local Islamabad hotel when the two lawmakers exchanged harsh words.
\n\u201cYou [Abbasi] and PML-N will hide your faces if I [decided] to talk on [issue] of Form 47,\u201d Kakar said.
\n\u201cHave you come to arrest me?\u201d the former premier questioned.
\nResponding to the ex-prime minister\u2019s remarks, Abbasi maintained that he had spoken the truth on the said issue during a television programme.
\nThe Form 47 jibe refers to the rigging allegations levelled by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf and other parties regarding the manipulation of results in the February 8 polls via the aforesaid Election Commission of Pakistan\u2019s (ECP) form which in essence amounted to provisional consolidated result of the constituency sans postal ballots in the polls.
\nThe PTI has time again alleged that the poll results of Form 47s were tampered with and that the actual results were reflected in Form 45s which recorded the number of votes cast in a polling station and how many votes a candidate received from that polling station.
\nThe bitter exchange between Kakar and Abbasi followed their argument over the wheat import scandal that has put the Centre and Punjab government in a tough spot.
\nPM Shehbaz Sharif has constituted an inquiry committee, led by Secretary Cabinet Division Kamran Ali Afzal, to investigate the import of wheat last year despite a \u201cbumper crop\u201d which has led to excess wheat stock leaving Balochistan and Punjab governments unable to purchase the crop from the farmers.
\nDue to the non-purchase of wheat by the provincial governments, wheat is being sold at a lower price than the official rate \u2014 a matter of grave concern for the farmers.
\nThe stock surplus is attributed to the caretaker government\u2019s, led by Kakar, decision to allow the import of 2,758,226 226 metric tonnes of wheat worth Rs225.783 billion till February 2024.
\nHowever, former premier Kakar, while speaking during an interview, has ruled out his role in the prevailing crisis stressing that \u201cit\u2019s not a job of a prime minister to oversee wheat production\u201d.
\nCommenting on the decision to import wheat, he said that only 3.4 million metric tonnes of the said crop was imported whereas the shortage was of 4 million metric tonnes.
\nSources told Geo News that the Ministry of National Food Security had apprised Shehbaz\u2019s cabinet that 28.18 million tonnes of wheat was produced last year and the caretaker government decided to import 2.45 million tonnes more.
\nAccording to the statistics, a total of 3,449,436 metric tonnes of wheat worth Rs282.975 billion was imported during the caretaker government\u2019s tenure and Shehbaz-led government during the ongoing fiscal year till March.
\nThe federal government has also removed Federal Secretary National Food Security and Research Division Captain (retd) Muhammad Asif from his post on the issue of wheat import.
\nMeanwhile, Muhammad Fakhr Alam Irfan, a Grade 22 officer of the Pakistan Administrative Service, has been appointed as the new federal secretary of the National Food Security and Research Division.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Wheat scandal \u201cPML-N leaders will hide their faces if I talk about Form 47,\u201d ex-PM tells Hanif Abbasi ISLAMABAD Former caretaker prime minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar got engaged in a verbal spat with Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Hanif Abbasi over the ongoing wheat crisis in the country. The incident took place on Friday at a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-404663","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-top-news"},"yoast_head":"\n