ZAHID BAIG

LAHORE: Rejecting the wheat issuance policy of the Punjab Government for the current year, Pakistan Flour Mills Association (PFMA) has threatened to shut down milling operations if the government wheat is not released to all the flour mills situated in all 36 districts of the province.

PFMA warned that if wheat was released to only five districts then rest of the 965 flour mills would be closed down and their keys would be presented to the Prime Minister of Pakistan as it was not possible that flour bag was sold at Rs 950 per 20 kg in five districts while consumers of the rest of the areas paid over Rs 1200 per 20 kilograms of the flour bag.

PFMA Central Chairman Asim Raza Ahmad while addressing a press conference here on Wednesday along with PFMA Punjab Chairman Rauf Mukhtar, former Chairman Mian Riaz and Habib ur Rehman Leghari said that policy of issuing government wheat to mills of only five district was a conspiracy hatched by the Secretary Food Punjab against the PTI government.

They said the government planned to issue wheat at Rs 1600 per maund to Lahore, Gujranwala, Faisalabad, Multan and Rawalpindi. They said PTI candidates had faced defeat in all those five districts while where the party returned victoriously, consumers of those areas were being deprived of cheaper flour, adding consumers of those areas would get 20 kilograms flour bag from Rs 1000 to 1300 per bag.

PFMA leadership said they had called an emergent meeting on June 27 to take final nod from members to shut down operations against the government wheat release policy. They said the government was only issuing 15,000 tons of wheat. They alleged that the Secretary Food denied the mills to buy wheat during the procurement season that year. Public sector bought 2.5 million tons of wheat more than the previous year’s buying target which created a vacuum of 2.5 million tons in the open market thus pushing the prices of grains upward.

They admitted the government had allowed the private sector to import wheat but said it was not possible to import wheat before September. They claimed the situation of wheat and flour would be the same till that time. They said if the government wanted to bring stability in the prices of flour then it should release wheat to all the mills across the province. They said releasing wheat to selective districts would not create a healthy competition while it might also create a shortage of wheat and flour in the market.

PFMA leadership assured to keep the flour rates uniform throughout the province if government wheat was released to all the mills. They said there would be no suspension in flour supply in the market too. They again criticized the food department Punjab saying that first it drafted a wrong procurement policy and now had presented a flawed wheat release policy which might prove killer for the flour milling industry.