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Karachi: As Pakistan continues to reel under severe wheat flour crisis, with locals fighting it out in public for a bag of the fundamental kitchen commodity, the Shehbaz Sharif-led country seems to be heading towards another emergency situation as prices of pulses are witnessing an upward trend over the past few days.
A few days ago, stampedes were reported in markets across Pakistan due to shortage of wheat. Several incidents were reported in the provinces of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh and Balochistan.
However, Pakistan now seems to be bracing for another crisis situation as prices of pulses are going up day-by-day, thanks to the non-clearance of imported consignments at the port due to a delay in the approval of relevant documents by banks, Dawn reported.
According to reports, as many as 6,000 containers of pulses were not given clearance at the port for the past two months.
Rauf Ibrahim, chairman of the Karachi Wholesalers Grocers Association (KWGA), said the traders held a protest outside the State Bank of Pakistan’s head office on Thursday against the no-clearance of containers on account of shortage of US dollar and banks’ reluctance in approval of import documents.
Prices of pulses
The wholesale price of gram pulse increased to PKR 205 per kg from PKR 180 on January 1 and PKR 170 on December 1 last year, Dawn quoted a commodity importer/exporter as saying.
Price of masoor dal, which was PKR 205 earlier, has now gone up to PKR 225, while prices of mash and moong shot up to PKR 335 per kg and PKR 260 from PKR 315 and PKR 225, respectively.
In retail market, these prices have further increased.
Also, it seems there is no respite for people in the near future as the retail price may crawl up further due to non-clearance of pulses containers from the port.
This comes days after a host of nations and international financial bodies pledged to give over USD 10 billion to Pakistan. Most of this amount will be in the form of project loans to be rolled out over the next three years. The pledges were made at a donors’ conference in Geneva
(With inputs from agencies)
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