Minister for Kashmir Affairs and Gilgit-Baltistan Engineer Amir Muqam has said that former Prime Minister/PML-N supreme leader Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif has always termed the Gilgit-Baltistan as base camp of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CEPEC) Project and Prime Minster Mian Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif was making his endeavor to giving effect to the vision of party’s supreme leader. Minister for Kashmir Affairs has also said that after come into power, PML-N led government has resolved the wheat subsidy issue as the ECC had approved 7.3 billion rupees on account of wheat subsidy budget in order to address the long-standing issue and termed it a positive development in this regard. Federal Minister pointed out that 16.73 billion rupees were required to meet the wheat subsidy requirement of the region for the fiscal year 2023-2024, where-as only 9.5 billion rupees were allocated for the said purpose and with the approval of additional budget amounting to 7.3 billion rupees as wheat subsidy budget, this issue was resolved and it was utmost priority of the incumbent federal government for the prosperity of the people of Gilgit-Baltistan.
Provision of wheat subsidy budget was one of main issue of the region and due to shortage of budget on this account, wheat crises had surfaced in the region and government of the area had increased the wheat price, but due to public pressure, it was again fixed as 2000 rupees per 100 kg wheat bag. Now the Minister for Kashmir Affairs Engineer Amir Muqam has said that incumbent federal government led by PML-N has addressed the wheat subsidy issue for the current fiscal year and an amount of 7.3 billion rupees were approved by the ECC to address the budget short-fall on this account. He also pointed out that 16.73 billion rupees were required to meet the wheat subsidy, but only 9.5 billion rupees were allocated for the fiscal year 2023-2024 and with the approval of additional budget, this issue has been resolved till the ending of current fiscal year up-to 30th June 2024. It is pertinent to mention here that wheat subsidy budget of the region was being provided by the federal government to the government of the area in every fiscal year and 9.5 billion rupees were allocated on account of wheat subsidy budget for current fiscal year, but this amount was not sufficient to purchase the required wheat as per demand of the people. According to the Minister for Kashmir Affairs, wheat subsidy budget up-to the month of June 2024 was approved, but it was not clear whether the federal government would provide 16.73 billion rupees for the next financial year on account of wheat subsidy budget or not. If the federal government would not provide the sufficient amount for purchase of wheat, wheat shortage may again surface in the region and provision of sufficient budget would be imperative in this regard.As regards with the base camp of the CPEC project, due share out of the said project was not provided to the government of area and no mega development project out of CPEC was provided to the region up-till now and it was beyond the understanding that why the base camp of CPEC project i.eGilgit-Baltistan was kept deprived from the benefits of said project. It would be appropriate for the federal government to allocate 16.73 billion rupees as wheat subsidy budget of the region for the next fiscal year 2024-2025, so that the people of the area may be able to get the wheat and flour as per their requirement with-out any hindrance…
