Chowrangi

In the recent years, Pakistan has become the paradise of hoarders, smugglers, kidnappers, black marketers and crisis mongers. No day goes by, when we are not suffering from the shortage of something. That something sometimes is cement, or it is rice, or it is sugar, or it is pulses, or it is vegetables like potato, tomato or many others.

Though our brains have gone crazy hearing that Pakistan is an agricultural country, and Punjab’s production is suffice even for the whole Indo-Pak sub-continent, but the reality is that Punjab even doesn’t seem to cater for the requirements of Lahore. The reality is that due to the usage of modern technology and the vast lands of Punjab, production still huge, but the system is in the control of hoarders and black-marketers, who have clout everywhere from politics to judiciary.

Just some days ago, and even now in many cities of Pakistan, we are watching an acute shortage of flour, especially at the start of Ramadan, the month of fasting for Muslims. People were seen wandering from one shop to another in the quest of flour. On the much-touted utility stores people used to stand for hours in long queues to purchase a single bag of flour. Fights were common over petty food items like sugar, vegetables and flour.

When people of Pakistan were crying for flour and with utmost difficult purchasing it 20Kg bag for Rs. 370 and more, Pakistani flour was available in ample quantity in the markets of India, Afghanistan, Iran and former Russian states. Government of Pakistan itself sold 500,000 wheat to India, and its own citizens where suffering due to flour shortage. The notorious bumper crop was available everywhere but in the country where it grew.

There should be a judicial inquiry of the matter and Supreme Court should take a sou moto action against this grand wheat conspiracy. It should call upon the wheat exporters, flour mill owners, and land owners, and render the most strict punishment to those responsible.

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