Shehbaz Sharif demands PM Imran's resignation over sugar, wheat crisis

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz president Shehbaz Sharif has said Prime Minister Imran Khan should tender his resignation over the sugar and wheat crises and should show up to court if he wants to set an example, reported The News on Thursday.

The opposition leader in the National Assembly said there was an urgent need to address the threat of coronavirus at wheat procurement centres following the wheat harvest.

Shehbaz proposed that agricultural loans of farmers with up to 12 acres of land owed to the government should be deferred for a year.

“Around this time massive and important exercise in the form of wheat procurement takes place every year in Punjab,” he said while speaking to agricultural experts on issues faced by the farmers’ community amid the COVID-19 outbreak, which has affected Punjab the most.

Read also: Shehbaz Sharif urges govt to announce agriculture policy

He added, “Long queues and gatherings for the collection of ‘Bardana’ at wheat procurement centres can be potential hotspots,” he remarked. “It is essential for the government to revisit the traditional system of wheat procurement from the farmers, devise new SOPs and communicate it.”

A day earlier, the PML-N leader had urged the government to immediately announce agricultural policy ahead of wheat harvesting season in the wake of corona threat.

“In the agricultural policy, the government must protect the interests of small farmers while taking into account the measures to save the people from coronavirus,” Shehbaz told a meeting.

He had added that he had urged his party to prepare recommendations concerning wheat harvest, the supply of wheat from farm to market and government’s wheat support price to help the farmers in the coming days of the wheat harvesting season.

“The PML-N has prepared its recommendations in consultation with medical experts, economists, businessmen and traders,” Shehbaz said.