ISLAMABAD: Pakistan is expected to face a wheat shortage of over five million tons next year with a reduction in the crop sowing area and production, according to provincial governments estimates, as economists and food security experts say this will strain on the economy and lead to inflation.
Wheat is a staple food in Pakistan and its shortage can lead to political unrest and protests against governments. The South Asian nation of 241 million is expected to face a shortfall of 5.66 million tons of the commodity next year and would have to spend foreign exchange to import wheat to fulfill local demand.
This year, the government allowed the private sector to import over three million tons of wheat to overcome shortages while tens of thousands of farmers staged protests in several cities over the government’s decision not to buy their wheat, causing them huge income losses.
The government routinely purchases around 20 percent of all the wheat produced by local farmers at a fixed cost to ensure price stability, prevent hoarding, and maintain the supply chain. However, it lowered its purchase target to two million tons from around six million tons this year, with farmers in Punjab, the country’s largest wheat producer, asking the authorities to stop imports and purchase the commodity from them at the minimum support price fixed officially.
“The provinces have come up with a lower sowing area and production target of wheat for the next year, therefore the country will face a shortage of the commodity,” Yasir Shakeel, a deputy director at Ministry of National Food Security and Research, told Arab News. “The provincial governments have been taking measures to achieve the sowing and production targets of wheat to fulfill the local need.”
He said the Federal Committee on Agriculture had set a wheat production target of 33.58 million tons from target area of 10.368 million hectares for 2025-26 based on national requirement for the produce to attain self-sufficiency.
“According to provincial governments’ proposals the target area for wheat will be 9.263 million hectares with production of 27.92 million tons,” he said.
The official said the Indus River System Authority’s advisory committee has anticipated a shortage of water to the extent of about 16 percent for Punjab and Sindh during the winter crop season, running from October to April, which could impact the wheat production along with other crops.
Farmers on the other hand have urged the government to announce a minimum support price of over Rs4,500 per 40 kilogram to encourage their community to sow the crop to achieve the government’s production target.
“There are still 15 to 20 days before the wheat sowing season concludes, so the government’s intervention at this stage may help encourage farmers sow the crop instead of looking for the alternatives,” Khalid Bath, President Kissan Ittehad, a farmers’ association, told Arab News.
As per the Kissan Ittehad estimates, the wheat sowing area can drop more than 30 percent this year compared to the previous year due to the Punjab administration’s policy of reducing the procurement target.
Dr. Abid Qaiyum Suleri, food security expert, said the farmers had not received a fair price for their cash crop, adding they were short of investments to sow the wheat crop on a large area.
“Farmers are looking for substitutes to earn profits on their crops as the government is apparently not willing to announce the minimum support price for the next year’s crop,” he told Arab News. “This will definitely lead to food shortages in the country, and the private sector will have a role to play to import the product to meet the local demand.”
Asif Arsalan Haider, a senior economist, maintained Pakistan’s inflation rate was heavily influenced by the agricultural products in the country, pointing out that wheat shortage would have a major impact on it.
“Pakistan’s rural economy is dependent on agriculture,” he said. “Therefore, farmers may face hardships if the government does not procure their produce at a fixed price.”
“The government should come up with a long term agricultural policy instead of resorting to stopgap arrangements each year,” he added.
Earlier this year in May, local media reported that the Punjab government had reduced its usual wheat procurement, allowing the private sector to play a larger role in purchasing the crop due to significant financial constraints, with annual procurement costs reaching around Rs400 billion ($1.4 billion).
The move was described partly as a response to the International Monetary Fund’s recommendations to cut provincial expenditures.
Reports also quoted Punjab’s Finance Minister Mujtaba Shuja-ur-Rehman as saying that most farmers had sold their wheat to middlemen, leading to market prices of Rs3,200-3,300 per maund, a traditional unit of mass commonly used in South Asia, amounting to about 40 kilograms, though this shift slightly reduced profit margins for farmers.
Pakistan to face 5 million ton wheat shortage next year amid reduced sowing area
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Pakistan to face 5 million ton wheat shortage next year amid reduced sowing area
- Federal government wants 33.58 million tons, while provinces expect 27.92 million due to reduced sowing area
- Farmers urge minimum support price announcement from Punjab to encourage wheat sowing this season
Pakistan stocks smash 113,000 mark on strong performance by energy, fertilizer sectors
- KSE-100 index climbed 2784.61, or 2.51 percent, to stand at 113,594.82 points at 2:48pm
- Investors confident of significant interest rate cut at next monetary policy meeting on Dec. 16
ISLAMABAD: Pakistani stocks continued their record-breaking streak on Thursday, crossing the 113,000-point mark for the first time during intra-day trading, with the strong performance of energy and fertilizer shares contributing to the gains.
The benchmark KSE-100 index climbed 2784.61, or 2.51 percent, to stand at 113,594.82 points at 2:48 pm, from the previous close of 110,810.21 points.
“Lower T-Bill yields, leading up to next week’s monetary policy, are driving investor enthusiasm,” Head of Equities at Intermarket Securities Raza Jafri told Arab News. “Index heavyweight energy and fertilizer contribute most to today’s rise.”
Arif Habib Corporation Chief Executive Officer Ahsan Mehanti attributed the record-breaking streak to surging global crude oil prices, upbeat Pakistan Oil Fields sales, car sales, cement dispatches data for November 2024 and the Asian Development Bank raising the growth forecast to three percent for FY25.
“These factors played the role of a catalyst in the record surge,” he told Arab News. “Stocks showed record bullish activity after government bonds yields fell by up to 100bps in the State Bank of Pakistan auction expected to bring significant policy easing next week.”
Stocks have been performing well this week on the back of investor confidence of a significant interest rate cut by the central bank at the next monetary policy meeting on Dec. 16.
Pakistan’s central bank has already slashed interest rates by 700 basis points (bps) in four consecutive meetings since June, bringing it to 15 percent.
According to a poll by Topline Securities, 71 percent of participants expect the central bank to announce a minimum rate cut of 200bps next week.
Pakistan’s annual consumer inflation also slowed to 4.9 percent in November, lower than the government’s forecast and the lowest in nearly six years. This is down from 38 percent last year.
Trade data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics also supports positive investor sentiment as the trade deficit narrowed by 7.39 percent during the first five months (July-November) of the current fiscal year, standing at $8.651 billion, compared to $9.341 billion during the same period last year.
Exports rose by 12.57 percent to hit $13.69 billion, while imports increased by 3.90 percent to $22.342 billion during this period. November’s trade deficit narrowed even further, dropping by 18.60 percent year-on-year to $1.589 billion compared to $1.952 billion in November 2023.
Pakistan’s Imran Khan, wife indicted in second graft case involving state gifts
- Couple is accused of undervaluing gifts from a state repository and buying them at a lesser price
- Khan, who has been in jail since August 2023, says all cases against him are politically motivated
ISLAMABAD: A special court in Islamabad on Thursday indicted jailed ex-premier Imran Khan and his wife in a case involving the sale of gifts from a state repository, his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) said.
The reference, popularly called the new Toshakhana case, was filed in July and involves a jewelry set worth over €380,000 gifted to Bushra Khan, the former first lady, by a foreign dignitary when Khan was prime minister from 2018-2022. The couple are accused of undervaluing the gift and buying it at a lesser price from the state repository. Both deny wrongdoing. This is the second case against the couple involving the sale of gifts from the state repository.
Khan has been in jail since August last year following his conviction in four cases, two of which have been suspended, including an original one relating to state gifts, and he was acquitted in the rest. He was also granted bail in the new Toshakhana case last month but remains behind bars in other cases. Bushra has been out on bail since October.
“This is a classic example of how a politically motivated case is being driven to keep one man in prison,” the PTI said in a statement sent to reporters, confirming his and Bushra’s indictment by a special court of the Federal Investigation Agency.
Khan’s convictions earlier this year prevented him from contesting the Feb. 8 election. The former prime minister and his party allege the cases are politically motivated and were a ploy by the then caretaker government, Pakistan’s electoral watchdog, the powerful military and his political rivals, led by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party, to keep Khan and his party away from elections. All deny the allegations.
Khan, who was ousted from office after a parliamentary vote in April 2022, has since waged an unprecedented campaign of defiance against the country’s powerful military, which is thought to be aligned with the government. The military denies it interferes in politics.
Khan continues to remain popular among the masses, especially the youth, with his party’s rallies drawing thousands of people. The PTI has held several rallies over the past few months to build public pressure to secure his release from prison.
Four troops and 12 PTI supporters were killed in the latest protest in Islamabad last month after security forces raided the protest site to disperse demonstrators who had gathered at a square that is in the federal capital’s heavily-policed red zone, home to key government and diplomatic buildings as well as the Supreme Court.
Afghanistan, Pakistan should accelerate efforts to achieve universal birth registration by 2030 — UNICEF
- New UNICEF report shows that 42 million children under age five are still without legal identities in South Asia
- According to report, one-fourth of total number of unregistered children under five globally lives in South Asia
ISLAMABAD: South Asia has seen the fastest increase in birth registration rates among all regions in the last two decades, soaring from 39 percent in 2008 to 76 percent in 2024, according to a new UNICEF report released this week, which called on Afghanistan and Pakistan to speed up efforts to achieve universal birth registration by 2023.
India, Nepal, and Bangladesh have made significant strides in securing legal identities for millions of children, as per the report, ‘The Right Start in Life: Global Levels and Trends in Birth Registration, 2024 Update.’ Maldives, Bhutan and Sri Lanka have near 100 percent coverage due to prioritizing timely registration, using health, social protection, and education systems to register babies, expanding services to more locations, digitizing the process and eliminating fees.
Released on UNICEF’s 78th birthday, the report is the latest update on the number of children registered since 2019. Article 7 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child states affirms every child’s right to have their identity established ‘immediately’ after birth through birth registration.
“To achieve universal birth registration by 2030, Afghanistan and Pakistan, in particular, must accelerate their efforts,” UNICEF said on its website in a statement about the report.
“Bangladesh, which has made significant increases over the past decade, needs to scale up birth registration. India has also made remarkable progress over the last ten years, and a ‘celebrating the last-mile’ strategy would enable the country to reach universal birth registration by 2030.”
Sanjay Wijesekera, UNICEF Regional Director for South Asia, said in a statement a birth certificate was the foundation for legal identity.
“But it’s so much more than a document, it protects children’s rights and enables them to access essential services like health care, education and other social services,” she said.
“Today, as UNICEF marks 78 years of championing children’s rights, we celebrate the millions of children who now have their right to a legal identity and a lifetime of promise and possibility.”
Over 42 million children under age five are still not registered and remain ‘invisible’ in South Asia.
This means they are deprived of their right to legal identity and social services. According to the report, one-fourth of the total number of unregistered children under five globally lives in South Asia.
Countries can recommit to scale up birth registration across South Asia, ahead of the ‘Third Ministerial Conference on Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (CRVS) in Asia and the Pacific’ in June 2025, UNICEF said, calling for every child to be registered at birth, for the registration process to be streamlined and for health, social protection and education programs to be used in scaling up birth registration.
“To uphold our commitment to leave no child behind, we must prioritize birth registration to protect children and give them the best start in life,” said Wijesekera.
“UNICEF calls on leaders across South Asia to accelerate efforts so that every child in the region is registered at birth. It’s the right thing to do.”
Pakistan welcomes UNGA resolution demanding Gaza ceasefire, unrestricted aid access
- Ongoing Israeli military campaign in Gaza has killed over 44,000 people, injured thousands more since Oct 7, 2023
- UN-backed assessment last month warned famine was looming in northern Gaza due to a near-halt in food aid
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Thursday welcomed a United Nations General Assembly resolution demanding an immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian group Hamas in the Gaza Strip and unrestricted access for the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) to deliver aid.
The ongoing Israeli military campaign in Gaza has killed more than 44,000 people and injured thousands more since Oct 7, 2023 attacks by Hamas in which Israel says 1,200 people were killed and 250 taken hostage.
Israel’s 13-month military campaign has displaced an estimated 1.9 million Palestinians, many of them multiple times. Bombings, movement restrictions and evacuations ordered by Israel’s military block access to health care and keep aid workers from reaching people in need, with aid organizations and charities repeatedly warning of crisis-level hunger affecting nearly two million people.
A UN-backed assessment last month warned famine was looming in northern Gaza due to a near-halt in food aid. Essential goods such as water, fresh produce, and medicines are also scarce.
“Pakistan welcomes the UNGA resolution of yesterday demanding an immediate and unconditional ceasefire in Gaza and removal of restrictions against UNRWA in its aid operations in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank,” Foreign Office Spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said at a weekly briefing on Thursday.
She called for the immediate “cessation of hostilities” in Palestine, an end to Israel’s “genocide,” protection of civilians and infrastructure, humanitarian access for the needy, and full support for UNRWA’s health care activities.
“We also urge the international community to hold Israel accountable for its war crimes and crimes against humanity in occupied territories,” Baloch added.
Since the beginning of Israel’s war on Gaza, Pakistan has repeatedly raised the issue at the UN, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and other multilateral platforms, demanding international powers and bodies stop Israeli military actions in Gaza.
Pakistan has dispatched a total of 1,273 tons of relief items to the war-affected people of Gaza until Nov. 27, according to the National Disaster Management Authority.
The South Asian nation does not recognize nor have diplomatic relations with Israel and calls for an independent Palestinian state based on “internationally agreed parameters” and the pre-1967 borders with Al-Quds Al-Sharif as its capital.
Pakistan calls for ‘inclusive political process, no foreign interference’ in determining Syria’s future
- Following overthrow of Assad, opposition forces’ leader Ahmad Al-Sharaa’s group is stamping its authority on the Syrian state
- It has deployed police, installed interim government, met foreign envoys, raising concerns over how inclusive new rulers intend to be
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan said on Thursday it supported an “inclusive political process” in Syria after the fall of President Bashar Assad’s regime and believed that the Middle Eastern nation’s future should be determined by its people without “foreign interference.”
Following the overthrow of the Assad family after over five decades in power, opposition forces’ leader Ahmad Al-Sharaa’s Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS) group is stamping its authority on the Syrian state with the same lightning speed that it seized the country, deploying police, installing an interim government and meeting foreign envoys, raising concerns over how inclusive Damascus’ new rulers intend to be. HTS bureaucrats — who until last week were running an administration in a remote corner of Syria’s northwest — have moved into government headquarters in Damascus.
The appointment of Mohammed Al-Bashir, the head of the regional government in HTS’ enclave of Idlib, as Syria’s new interim prime minister on Monday underlined the group’s status as the most powerful of the armed groups that battled for more than 13 years to end Assad’s iron-fisted rule.
“We believe that any solution to the situation in Syria should correspond to the aspirations of the Syrian people for their security, stability and development, Pakistan believes that it is the right of the people of Syria to determine their own future and make decisions about their destiny,” foreign office spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch told reporters on Thursday.
“We also support efforts to establish an inclusive political process. We also believe that no foreign interference or external imposition should determine Syria’s future.”
Although it was part of Al-Qaeda before breaking ties in 2016, HTS had reassured tribal leaders, local officials, and ordinary Syrians during its march to Damascus that it would protect minority faiths, winning broad approval. The message helped smooth the advance by the opposition forces and Sharaa — better known as Abu Mohammed Al-Golani — has repeated it since Assad’s ouster.
Bashir has said he will only remain in power until March. But HTS — which remains classified as a terrorist group by the United States, regional powerbroker Turkiye and other governments — has yet to spell out key details of the transition process, including its thinking on a new constitution.
Foreign Office spokesperson also said Pakistan was “deeply concerned” over Israeli aggression against Syria, its “illegal seizure” of Syrian territory and widespread destruction of infrastructure and civilian and military installations.
After the overthrow of Assad on Sunday, Israeli troops moved into the demilitarized zone set up after the 1973 Middle East war, saying the incursion was a temporary measure to ensure border security. Israel aims to impose a “sterile defense zone” in southern Syria that would be enforced without a permanent troop presence, Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Tuesday, as the military said a wave of air strikes had destroyed the bulk of Syria’s strategic weapons stockpiles.
“This assault on the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Syria is a grave breach of international law. We express support for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Syria and reject Israeli acquisition of territory by force,” Baloch said.
“We reaffirm our support for the UN Security Council Resolution 497, which declares Israeli annexation of the Golan Heights null and void and without international legal effect.”
She also said the ministry of foreign affairs and Pakistan’s missions in Syria and Lebanon were “actively” working to repatriate Pakistanis in Syria.
More than 1,300 Pakistanis have been stranded in Syria since Sunday. Earlier this week, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif urged Lebanese PM Najib Mikati to “personally” assist in getting Pakistanis, including pilgrims, out of Syria by land routes through the border with Lebanon.
“Around 475 Pakistanis, including around 250 pilgrims, have crossed the Syrian border into Lebanon,” Baloch said.
“They will be transferred from Beirut to Islamabad. We appreciate the support extended by the government of Lebanon in facilitating the safe return of the stranded Pakistani nationals from Syria.”
– With inputs from Reuters
