THE Federal Cabinet, in its meeting on Tuesday chaired by Prime Minister Imran Khan, held thorough discussion on a wide-ranging agenda including the flour crisis, sugar price hike, legislative proposals, locust attack in the country and steps to tackle the spread of Corona virus. Formation of a Committee to probe wheat crisis, approval for import of three hundred thousand tonnes of wheat and the decision to import sugar to stabilize its prices might help mitigate sufferings of the people if fairly implemented.
The issues taken up for discussion by the Cabinet have a direct bearing on the life of the common man and the measures proposed to tackle them are appreciable. However, we would point out that decisions to export commodities and their subsequent import only a few months later has become a vicious cycle that has been going on for decades and it involves vested interests of the time. There is need to bring this loathsome practice to an end and decisions for import and export of agricultural commodities should be made after detailed input and those recommending such measures should be held accountable for any negative impact on the domestic market. In a surprising move, the Cabinet also backtracked from an understanding that the Prime Minister had reached with the Sindh Chief Minister over the issue of IG Police of the province, sending wrong signals about decision-making process and credibility of the Government. The decision to disallow camp offices of the President and the Prime Minister is surely in line with the austerity drive of the incumbent Government. The move would help save millions if not billions that are spent on camp offices, which are, at times private residences of the personalities concerned. However, the decision to recover billions of rupees ‘illegally’ spent by a former president, prime ministers and chief ministers from the national exchequer seems to be politically motivated as is substantiated by the time period and the former office-holders involved. This is nothing more than a gimmick like the one that brought less money and more shame when cows and buffaloes were put on sale at the PM House.
