KARACHI – Leader of the business community and former President ICCI Shahid Rasheed Butt on Tuesday said the country is facing threats bigger than the coronavirus which should be tackled without further delay.
Pakistan is facing the worst locust attack in the last 27 years that have destroyed crops on hundreds of thousands of acres because timely action was not taken despite warnings, he said.
Moreover, the undeterred hoarders have initiated an artificial flour crisis which will intensify with the passage of time.
The profiteers and hoarders want to sell flour at the price of sugar in the next few months which can result in massive unrest and civil war if the mafia was not controlled.
Shahid Rasheed Butt said that hollow statements and tall promises have emboldened the flour mills mafia, agriculturists, hoarders and middlemen to play with the lives of people for a bonanza.
He said that the government should immediately start importing wheat and reduce regulatory duty by six percent to attract the private sector.
The business leader said that wheat price is at the lowest during the months of July and August due to Black Sea supplies as the local wheat production in the province of Punjab may fall short by 7 to 10 million tonnes.
He said that like the past year experience, wheat can disappear from godowns in the province of Sindh which will result in price shocks all over the country for which immediate and massive imports are necessary.
Last year, the federal and provincial the governments were warned of the wheat crisis but the authorities preferred inaction to add to the miseries of the masses and the situation has not improved since then, he lamented.
He also called upon the authorities to take note of the profiteering by the banks, private power mafia, poultry mafia, and companies behind the artificial shortage of petrol in the country.
Mr. Butt said that masses have to brave repeated sugar crisis, therefore the government should nationalize the sugar mills to shield masses from sugar mills mafia.
