Islamabad : As Wheat crisis is getting unmanageable its bitting every citizen of Pakistan now as flour prices are going out of reach of every commoner whose share is 70 % of the population.
In Pakistan wheat flour prices are all time high . Retail price of wheat flour is gone up to Rs 190 and in some cities to Rs 200 for a 10kg bag.
The Punjab government is blamed for the grain crisis as it produces 80 % wheat to feed 250 million Pakistanis and also a sizeable number of Afghans and others out of its borders .
Pakistan’s wheat grain is of extraordinary quality and hence its first choice for many nations which historically use imported or smuggled Pakistani wheat flour . Afghanistan is one example. The officials in Pakistan unofficially confirm that Pakistan used to include Afghan population , of course , unofficially when making projections of the commodity requirement for any particular year.
Then Pakistan turned into a wheat deficit country from wheat surplus one. Maryam rule’s policy of going its own way in dealing with wheat growers and leaving them in total disarray in 2025 set a stage for wheat crisis in the province and so the entire country. Maryam government walked out of wheat procurement in 2025 without any formal homework. The grower was left on the mercy of free marketing for selling produce . The result was lowering of wheat prices much below the crop production cost . The record shows the growers had to sell their produce in 2025 as below as Rs 2000 per 40 kg when their cost was Rs 3500 . This killing move of the Punjab government sent a message to the growers that the rulers had no priority to ensure a reasonable price of the produce to them. Since wheat production was surplus around 29 million tons in 2025 , it kept the government going on for the full year without paying heed to the farmers wailing . This treatment discouraged the growers to sow wheat crop on the acreage for 2026 they had sowed for 2025. Resultantly, wheat production fell sharply in 2026. The officials of Punjab Food ministry misled the federal government and kept claiming that wheat production was surplus and more than the requirement for full year (2026). Then after only two months after harvesting , the wheat crisis started to shape up. The Punjab Food Department did not change its narrative of bumper wheat production till things went out of control and wheat rates shot up to over Rs 6000 per 40 kg in August this year. Meanwhile , the Punjab Food Department started to follow a pick and choose formula for the release of wheat quota to give huge financial benefit to the selected flour mills . The mills which were ignored had claimed that the Punjab Food Department was involved in huge corruption in the release of quota , but these calls remained unheard. The rulers of Punjab think themselves over and above any rule of law . This approach is continuing as their is no investigations into wheat flour crisis at the Punjab or federal government levels.The federal government, instead ordering investigations of the wheat crisis and corruption allegations in the provincial Food Department , has sprung -up to import around one million tons of wheat through Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP) that could cost Pakistan over $ 1 billion . This loss could have been easily averted had the Punjab government followed a pro grower policy and later followed a transparent policy for release of wheat quota to the mills and held investigations into allegations of corruption in wheat release to the mills as well as issuance of permit for flour supply to KP.