Islamabad — July 29, 2026 : As wheat and flour crisis take turn for the worse, Economic Coordination Committee of the cabinet on Wednesday constituted a high- level steering committee for working out mechanism for import of wheat.
Pakistan is in grip of panic over wheat crisis and its rushing to import the commodity from the international market.
The level of panic among decision-makers could be judged that Finance minister , Muhammad Aurangzeb, chaired ECC meeting virtually as he was not in town and urgency did not permit for his return and take the issue in ECC meeting.
Interestingly , Shahbaz regime is rushing for wheat import without finding the reasons that pushed the country into crisis exactly after one and half months of the harvesting season.
An official handout issued after ECC said Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue, Senator Muhammad Aurangzeb, today virtually chaired the meeting of the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet, held at the Finance Division.
It said “The ECC considered a summary submitted by the National Food Security & Research Division and approved the proposal to constitute a Steering committee comprising of Federal Minister for National Food Security & Research; Federal Minister for Commerce; Federal Minister for Economic Affairs Division; Minister for Law Division; SAPM for Coordination of the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister / Minister of Foreign Affairs; Coordinator to the Prime Minister on Agriculture and Food Security; Secretary for Finance Division; Secretary for Ministry of Commerce; Secretary for Ministry of National Food Security & Research; Chairman Federal Board of Revenue (FBR); Chief Secretaries of Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan; Chairman Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP) under the Chairmanship of Deputy Prime Minister. The Steering Committee will , inter alia, do the need assessment and devise operational mechanism with reference to proposal of Wheat import and demand of provinces’.
The meeting was attended by Federal Minister for National Food Security and Research Mr. Rana Tanveer Hussain, Federal Minister for Commerce Mr. Jam Kamal Khan, Federal Minister for Investment Mr. Qaiser Ahmed Sheikh, Federal Minister for Power Sardar Awais Ahmad Khan Leghari, and Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Industries and Production Mr. Haroon Akhtar Khan. Coordinator to Prime Minister on Agriculture and Food Security, along with federal secretaries and senior officials from the relevant ministries, divisions, and regulatory authorities also attended the meeting.
Just one moth ago , Chief minister of Punjab, Maryam Nawaz , was claiming publicaly that her province had a bumper wheat crop this time. Now after six weeks , there is panic among decision-makers and they want to import wheat in emergency.
One fails to understand why the federal government is not investigating where “Bumper ” crop of wheat as claimed by the Punjab chief minister has gone.
