Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has approved actions against several Ministry of National Food Security officials for their poor handling of the wheat import scandal, but no high-ranking officials from the caretaker government were named in the inquiry report.
The government plans to suspend four officials for their negligence. This follows an investigation led by Secretary Cabinet Division Kamran Ali Afzal into last year’s unnecessary wheat import, which left Balochistan and Punjab with excess wheat stock they couldn’t sell to farmers.
The surplus resulted from the caretaker government’s decision to import 2.76 million metric tonnes of wheat despite a large local harvest. Former caretaker prime minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar disputed the numbers, saying only 3.4 million metric tonnes were imported while there was a shortage of four million metric tonnes. In response, PM Shehbaz has called a high-level meeting with relevant officials to discuss wheat procurement targets and address the issues faced by farmers.