PM Shahbaz Sharif suspends secretary food security after Wheat scandal.
In a response to the wheat import scandal, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has taken swift action, suspending Secretary of Food Security Muhammad Asif and appointing Muhammad Fakhar-e-Alam as his successor.
The Prime Minister’s intervention came following revelations of alarming discrepancies in the wheat import process.
Despite Punjab’s ample reserves totaling 40.47 lakh metric tons, an additional 35.87 lakh metric tons were imported, leading to an artificial shortage.
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Initial investigations have cast suspicion on officials from the Punjab Food Department and Pasco, suggesting their involvement in the scandalous affair.
It has been unveiled that wheat was procured at a cost ranging between Rs 2600 to Rs 2900 per maund, only to be sold at a significantly inflated price of Rs 4700 per maund.
Moreover, import permissions originally capped at 1 million metric tons were blatantly surpassed without restraint.
PM Shahbaz Sharif Notice About Wheat Scandal
وزیر اعظم شہباز شریف کا فروری 2024 کے بعف گندم کی درآمد جاری رکھنے پر تحقیات کا حکم pic.twitter.com/sfMu1QTsOC— Mian Junaid (@mianjunaid631) May 3, 2024
Sources further divulged that federal institutions turned a blind eye to the unchecked influx of private wheat imports, with certain officials from the Ministry of Finance neglecting their duty to scrutinize the process thoroughly.
As PM Shahbaz suspends secretary food security after Wheat scandal, the repercussions of this mismanagement are dire, with estimates suggesting a staggering loss of $1 billion to the national exchequer.
Also read: Extra wheat import caused over Rs300bn loss: Food Minister
