ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif this week formed a government committee to address the ongoing wheat crisis in the country, state-run media said, amid protests by thousands of farmers who say they are facing difficulties in selling and buying the food grain in Pakistan.

Farmers in Pakistan’s most prosperous Punjab province are demanding the government stop wheat imports that have flooded the market at a time when they expect bumper crops. The import of wheat in the second half of 2023 and the first three months of 2024 has resulted in excess amounts of the commodity leading to reduced prices, they say. 

“Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Saturday taking notice of the issues faced by the farmers in selling their wheat and obtaining wheat bags, formed a committee under Ministry of National Food Security and Research to address their grievances,” the state-run Associated Press of Pakistan (APP) reported. 

Sharif issued the directives to form the committee during a high-level meeting he chaired on Saturday to review wheat procurement matters through the Pakistan Agricultural Storage and Services Corporation (PASSCO). The meeting was attended by federal ministers Rana Tanveer Hussain, Attaullah Tarar, and other officials.

The committee would take measures to address farmers’ concerns within four days, APP said, adding that Sharif expressed concerns over reports of farmers facing difficulties in buying wheat at “fair” prices and tasked authorities to resolve the issue immediately. 

“The federal government, through PASSCO, is procuring 1.8 million metric tons of wheat to ensure maximum benefit to farmers,” the APP quoted Sharif as saying. 

“The prime minister emphasized that the government will not compromise on the economic protection of farmers and will take all necessary steps to ensure their well-being.”

Agriculture is the backbone of Pakistan’s economy and constitutes its largest sector. The majority of Pakistan’s population, directly or indirectly, depends on agriculture for their income. 

According to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS), agriculture contributes about 24 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and accounts for half of the employed labor force in the country. 
 

ISLAMABAD: A high-level Saudi business delegation led by the Kingdom’s deputy investment minister will arrive in Pakistan today, Sunday, to explore investment opportunities in various economic sectors, Federal Minister for Petroleum Musadik Malik confirmed a day earlier. 

Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, who enjoy fraternal ties rooted deep in shared culture, religion and economic cooperation, have witnessed a flurry of official visits in recent weeks. Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan traveled to Islamabad earlier in April before Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s two-day visit to the Kingdom to attend a World Economic Forum meeting where he met Saudi officials. 

“The Saudi Deputy Investment Minister is visiting Pakistan tomorrow,” Malik, who is also the focal person for Saudi-Pak bilateral collaboration, told reporters at a news conference in Lahore on Saturday. 

“He is bringing representatives from 30 to 35 companies whose CEOs are coming here.”

The Pakistani minister maintained his country had always cherished cordial ties with the Kingdom, though it had not managed to turn this “relationship of friendship into a relationship of stability and progress.”

He said Pakistan mostly discussed its financial concerns with the Saudi authorities and requested their support. However, the present government wanted to change that by focusing its bilateral conversations on mutually beneficial progress and development, not aid and assistance.

The minister said the two sides discussed a new refinery project during the recent engagements that would be used for export purposes to earn foreign revenue. Additionally, food security was also discussed to further strengthen Pakistan’s agricultural sector.

He informed that Prime Minister Sharif wanted the country’s “private sector to take the lead on this path to progress.”

“That is why Saudi investors have been invited to come here,” he continued. “They will sit with Pakistani companies and figure out ways to connect the Pakistani talent with the capital and investment needed at the international level for the IT revolution.”

Malik said the bilateral collaboration would primarily benefit small businesses, particularly the technology companies established by young students who were likely to get a significant amount of investment from Saudi entrepreneurs.

He expressed optimism that chemical, energy and agricultural companies would also gain an advantage from the ongoing bilateral collaboration between the two sides.

Apart from Pakistan and Saudi Arabia’s fraternal ties, the Kingdom is particularly important to Islamabad as it is home to over 2.7 million Pakistani expatriates and serves as the top source of remittances to the cash-strapped South Asian country.

Both Pakistan and Saudi Arabia have been closely working to increase bilateral trade and investment deals, and the Kingdom recently reaffirmed its commitment to expedite an investment package worth $5 billion.