SHC questions about minister in wheat scam

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Tuesday heard a case regarding stolen wheat worth billions of rupees, ARY News reported.

During the hearing, the lawyer representing the accused Zubair and others said his clients were ready to pay the amount.

The counsel of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) said the suspects were paying the amount and not the mark-up.

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Chief justice Sindh High Court said the accused must also pay the mark-up rate. The court said the wheat was meant for distribution among the poor.

The SHC bench asked about the relevant minister. The investigation officer responded that Minister for Food & Parliamentary Affairs Nisar Khuhro and Secretary Food Department Sajjad Abbasi were also under investigation by the officials.

The court ordered the lawyer to prepare mechanism for payment of amount of missing wheat.

Later the court also grilled NAB investigators for using property vehicles for travelling. “I can assure that this is not the case in NAB sukkur,” the investigator responded.

Last year the Sindh government had fixed a wheat purchase target of 1.4m tonnes which was met by the food department. Sindh has an official wheat storage capacity of 750,000 tonnes. The remaining quantum is kept in rented premises of flour mills.