ISLAMABAD: The federal cabinet, which met here on Tuesday with prime minister Imran Khan, in the chair, directed to the Punjab government to take effective measures to stop urea smuggling and its hoarding in the country.
Briefing the media on the decisions taken by the federal cabinet, Information minister, Fawad Hussain Chaudhary, said there were some reports of urea hoarding and its smuggling as its rates in the international market were 8 times more than Pakistan and the federal cabinet took its serious notice and directed to the Punjab government to take effective measures to stop these ugly practices. He said Pakistan has sufficient stock of urea to meet the demand of the farming community for the current crops. He said the fertilizer plants were being provided gas on top priority basis to meet growing demand of urea in the country.
The minister said the federal government was having strict monitoring of the urea availability and it would not allow its hoarding and smuggling.
Fawad Chaudhary said “ There is a difference of Rs 10,000/ per kg in the price of urea in the local market vis -a -vis international market and it was a big attraction for the smugglers”.
The minister also gave details of other key decisions taken by the federal cabinet including approval of the first ever national security policy 2021, appointment of Mohammad Asim as executive member of Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA). He said the federal cabinet has accepted resignation of Security Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) chief. According to the Information minister, federal cabinet also approved appointment of coordination committee for education boards. He said the federal cabinet was briefed on the availability of commodities in the country. He said Pakistan was lucky to have bumper crops of cotton, wheat, sugarcane and rice in 2021. He noted that better crops yield resulted in adding Rs 1100 billion to the income of the farming community in the outgoing calender year.
Fawad Chaudhary told a questioner that the government was forced to go to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for loan due to economic meltdown triggered by Nawaz Sharif and Asif Zardari during their respective rules. He claimed that mini budged was an adjustment in budgetary allocations and it will have no impact on the lives of a common man.
Honour for NEWSMAN
NEWSMAN had raised the issue of urea smuggling to Afghanistan and other regional countries in its edition dated December 27, 2021
