Pakistan has sufficient stock of wheat to cater country needs

Caretaker Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Murtaza Solangi has said there is a sufficient stock of wheat to cater the needs of the country.

Winding up discussion on a motion moved by Dr Sania Nishtar, in the Senate he said there is a stock of 72,13,884 metric tons in the country.

Talking about public stocks, he said PASSCO possesses 1,716,177 metric tons, Punjab 3,924,367, Sindh 8,17,394, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 2,15,082, and Balochistan 89, 354 metric tons.

Similarly in the private domain, Punjab has 337,270 metric tons, Sindh 93,185, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 14 918, and Balochistan 4,157 metric tons.

The Minister further said that a private stock of imported wheat of 10 33,845 metric tons is also available in the country.

Responding to another motion, the Minister for Parliamentary Affairs said Pakistan imports 15,000 tons of baby formula milk for infants.

He said Pakistan Standards and Quality Control Authority is responsible to check the quality of the imported formula milk.

He said there is no substitute to breast feeding but in some cases use of formula milk becomes unavoidable.

Replying to a motion moved by Senator Kamran Murtaza regarding the devaluation of Pakistan rupee and shortage of US dollars in the market, the Minister for Parliamentary Affairs said rupee value has improved as a result of the corrective measures taken by the caretaker government.

He expressed the confidence that rupee value will further strengthen after the receipt of the second tranche of the IMF programme.

Tags: stocks, Pakistan, wheat