Amidst ongoing protests from farmers over the government’s failure to purchase wheat at the promised support price, the federal government appears to have decided the fault lies solely with the bureaucracy and not the caretaker leadership that oversaw its imports despite reports of a looming bumper crop.
Reportedly, the interim government—as well as the first two months of the incumbent regime—saw the import of 2.8 million tons of wheat, costing roughly Rs. 330 billion. With the country’s strategic reserves full, the government—particularly in Punjab—opted against purchasing from local growers, forcing them to sell their supplies to middlemen at significantly lower prices of Rs. 2,800-Rs. 3,000/40kg of wheat against the designated support price of Rs. 3,900. Seeing their anticipated profits fall, farmers took to the streets to little avail, as the government maintained it could not complete purchases it lacked space to store.
As the outrage mounted, and opposition parties sought to join in the farmers’ protest, the federal government formed an inquiry committee to fix responsibility on the people responsible for the crisis. However, rather than fixing any guilt on the policymakers at the helm of government, the report has found senior officials at fault, with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif suspending the Pakistan Agricultural Storage and Services Corporation (PASSCO) managing director and general manager of procurement over “negligence.” The premier has also ordered a third party audit of PASSCO stock and suspended the federal secretary for food security.
The governance failure has seen the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf demand the formation of a judicial commission to investigate the wheat scandal after alleging the government’s inquiry appeared to be an attempt to protect the big players involved. Coalition partner Pakistan Peoples Party has likewise called for a NAB investigation into the scandal, while PMLN leader Nawaz Sharif has met with the prime minister and urged him to resolve the crisis and hold those responsible accountable. The sad irony is that while farmers have suffered, the general public has seen its purchasing power marginally improve, with consumer wheat prices declining, boosting efforts to curb inflation. But the damage done to farmers’ confidence in the government may be irreversible and see significant aftershocks in the years to come.