Inquiry reports on flour, sugar crisis made public on PM Imran's order

ISLAMABAD: On the directives of Prime Minister Imran Khan, the federal government on Saturday made public reports of a high-level inquiry into the sugar and wheat crises that had hit the people hard across the country in January, ARY News reported.

Under the stewardship of Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) director general Wajid Zia, two teams carried out a probe into the crises and furnished their reports to the prime minister upon completion for perusal.

Prime Minister Khan went through the report before these were made public.

Among the people held responsible for the crises are political figures associated with the PTI and its allies.

The report revealed PTI stalwart Jahangir Khan Tareen, a brother of Food Minister Khusro Bakhtiyar, and PML-Q leader Moonis Elahi are among the beneficiaries of the sugar crisis which took a serious toll on the people, especially the poor.

It said the major reason behind the crises was a lack of planning on the part of the federal and provincial governments.

The Punjab Food Department dragged its feet to maintain sufficient stock of wheat in the province and also failed to iron out a demand and supply mechanism, it claimed, adding the department didn’t take timely decisions to redress the situation.

However, the report said, the commission couldn’t fix the responsibility for the crises on any individual in Sindh province.

It said the Sindh cabinet didn’t take any decision on a summary regarding procurement of wheat, while Khyber Pakhtunkhwa minister Qalandar Lodhi, secretary Akbar Khan and food director Sadat Hussain were held responsible for the crisis in the province.