ISLAMABAD - The treasury and the opposition on Friday traded barbs in the Senate first over the use of helicopter by ex-premier Imran Khan to travel from his Bani Gala residence to PM House, and then over the wheat and flour crisis in the country by holding each other responsible for it. The treasury lawmakers blamed the PTI-led provincial governments in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa for the flour crisis while the opposition side accused the ruling coalition in the centre for the mess making the lives of lower and middle income people miserable. At the outset of the sitting, Leader of the Opposition in the Senate Dr Shahzad Waseem warned that people have to risk their lives to get a bag of flour. He also appreciated the decision of PTI for dissolving Punjab and KP assemblies and added the party and its chief Imran Khan had to sacrifice two governments for a cause. The opposition leader chided that the rulers’ performance was confined to advertisements and making foreign tours. He also said that the government was boasting of getting pledges of foreign funding of worth $9 billion in the Geneva conference but its own finance minister himself has clarified that the funds would be in the form of loans. Senator Waseem added that the rulers wanted to run away from elections, but PTI would push them towards the polls, which was the only way to steer the country out of the crisis. Jamaat-e-Islami Senator Mushtaq Ahmad raising the issue of wheat and flour crisis in the country said that there was the worst shortage of commodity in the markets countrywide, especially in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. “Not only people but also women along with their kids have to come on roads to protest against the shortage of flour.” Senator Ahmad emphasized that there was no writ of the government as no action was being taken against hoarders of wheat. He said that flour was being smuggled to Afghanistan despite border fencing and deployment of army, paramilitary forces and police on the border. ANP Senator Hidayatullah Khan also speaking on the issue said that KP has witnessed very high prices of the commodity. He said that there was a huge difference in prices of the flour in Punjab and KP despite PTI was the ruling party in both the provinces. PPP Senator Robina Khalid endorsed the other lawmakers and said that the people were in distress in KP due to the flour crisis. She said that PTI was trying to create an artificial crisis only to blame the federal government. Earlier, during the question hour, the house was informed that the government had to incur an expenditure of Rs 434.43 million on the use of helicopter by former Prime Minister Imran Khan during his tenure of over three years.
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