MUZAFFARABAD (Kashmir English): The Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) government has allocated around Rs9 billion more money for the procurement of wheat in the budget as compared to the previous year, senior journalist Zulfiqar Ali claimed during the Kashmir Digital podcast.
While talking on the issue, the investigative journalist said that the AJK government purchases 300,000 tons of wheat every year from PASSCO, which costs approximately Rs32.25 billion.
Breaking down Rs32.25 billion, he said that Azad Kashmir pays Rs1000 per ton of wheat, which includes incidental charges, transportation, and grind costs.
However, Rs41 billion has been allocated for wheat in the fiscal year 2024-25 budget for procurement of wheat, which raised many questions. He further mentioned that the government failed to mention the Rs14.5 billion profit from last year.
After the question arose, the AJK Food Department released a press release last year in September, stating that the profit money was paid to the government of Pakistan in last year’s debt, he said.
Explaining the whole wheat scandal, Zulfiqar Ali told Kashmir Digital that the Rs14 billion of public money is still missing, and the AJK government failed to explain it.
He questioned where this additional money was spent.
“Is the price of wheat going to increase or is there any other project for which this money has been kept? By the way, the people are being crushed by inflation, if wheat becomes expensive, it will become more difficult for them,” he questioned.
Talking about the wheat procurement amount, he said that it includes transportation, the loan that PASSCO takes from the bank with interest, and the costs of grinding wheat.
It should be noted that the documents sent by the government of Azad Kashmir for the budget of 2024-25 to the government of Pakistan mention Rs 41 billion for wheat.
