Pakistan and wheat

I read the following news in DAWN (newspaper):

LAHORE, July 16: The government is considering a proposal to link domestic wheat prices to regional prices from the next Rabi season to curb smuggling.

What? What sort of linking? Every country produces different amounts of wheat hence they are priced differently. The purchasing power parity also differs. Then i read further:

“The cabinet has discussed a proposal to control smuggling of wheat through a price mechanism,” Information Minister Sherry Rehman told a briefing after the meeting. But she did not say whether the cabinet had approved the proposal or not.

Hmm,... lets see, if wheat gets smuggled outside Pakistan, who suffers?
Two kinds of people in my opinion:

1 - The common man
When the wheat is smuggled away, there is shortage if wheat. Simple. The price of wheat rises due to the cruel supply/demand rule. People either don't get the wheat, or they do get it but at higher prices.
2 - The exporter The wheat exporter suffers too since there is lesser wheat already in the country, so naturally the exporter has lesser wheat to export. If he does get his hands on the wheat before anyone else, he again creates problems for the common man because when he would export the wheat, lesser of it is left which might raise the wheat price locally.

Lets read on at what the news said next:

“Wheat prices in Pakistan are still very low, compared to its global and regional prices. It is because of this price difference that the grain is being smuggled to Afghanistan and other countries,” she said

"OH MY GOD", I thought out loud. What kind or reason is that? The common man cannot get any benefit from this if this happens. Obviously if the wheat prices rise above a certain extent most people wouldn't be able to afford it, so the issue of enough wheat being available would vanish. There will be a lot of unused grain since people will be forced to buy lesser wheat.

What about the exporter? Interestingly the exporter wont suffer as much. Why? since the exporter would probably have the same or more amount of wheat to export. Why, since now people wont buy enough of it due to its high price.

I have only two logical solution to this mystery in my mind:

1- The government has failed to think of another way of dealing with smuggling.
2- This law is going to be implemented to benefit wheat exporters of wheat producing landowners.


I am flabbergasted. I fail to see the wisdom in this. If anyone has any idea why this might be useful please let me know as comments on the blog.

May Allah give us sincere leaders soon