Wheat 'smuggled, exported to benefit friends': Pervaiz Rasheed

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Senator Pervaiz Rasheed claimed on Monday that wheat was smuggled and exported to benefit "certain friends" and to fill their pockets with dollars.

Speaking in a debate during a Senate session on the ongoing acute wheat crisis, Rasheed said: "The profit and dollars went to the person whose planes you travel in and who runs your kitchen.

"Today, we will buy roti (bread) for Rs17 but the world was sold the same roti for Rs6. Those who snatch away roti [from the people] will not have peace in the hereafter and will suffer torment in their graves."

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On the other hand, Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan (JI) chief Senator Sirajul Haq subtly criticised the federal minister for railways, Sheikh Rashid Ahmad, saying there had been "one minister [who] said people eat more rotis in November and December".

However, "November and December didn't come for the first time this year, they come every year; yet, there was no wheat crisis earlier," the JI chief added.

Wheat prices across the country have sky rocketed over the past few days as fears of a looming shortage hit markets. The government has said it is doing all it can to contain the crisis, amid allegations from the opposition that the government is ill-equipped to deal with the issue.