LAHORE, April 20: Punjab Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi announced a "temporary ban" on the movement of wheat from 18 districts, at a news conference here on Tuesday, after presiding over a meeting which reviewed situation relating to procurement of wheat.

Official sources said the administrative step had been taken to help the government meet its wheat procurement targets and put a check on the private sector so far dominating the drive started only 10 days ago.

Mr Elahi said the ban was temporary and would be lifted after the procurement of the required wheat by the government. The Punjab government has so far been saying that it would not adopt any administrative measure to check the purchase of wheat by the private sector.

The districts are Bahawalpur, Rahim Yar Khan, Bahawalnagar, Multan, Khanewal, Sahiwal, Lodhran, Vehari, Pakpattan, Dera Ghazi Khan, Rajanpur, Muzaffargarh, Faisalabad, Okara, Layyah, Jhang, Gujranwala and Sargodha. As majority of the districts are from south Punjab, the ban will also affect private buyers from Sindh who have been active in Rahim Yar Khan and Bahawalpur.

Official sources said the government had restricted the movement of wheat after its failure to adequately buy it during the first 10 days of the active buying period which would last for another 20 days.

The government wanted to purchase 3.5 million tons of wheat this season out of which three million tons is necessary to meet the compulsory benchmark for basic food security, they said, claiming that as against this it had been able to procure only 345,000 tons during the first 10 days of the drive.

Most of the wheat had been bought up by the private sector and the latest measures indicated the government's concern regarding its own inability to procure the commodity at the desired rate, they claimed. The government had for the first time allowed private parties to also buy wheat from the open market last year.

The chief minister said the step had been taken to ensure safe storage of wheat and its smooth supply to the province and other areas in the country. It had given 50,000 tons of wheat to Sindh last year, also supplying it to Balochistan, Azad Kashmir and the Northern Areas.

He said since Punjab was the main supplier of wheat to the entire country, the government had decided to adopt measures to improve its procurement methods so that it could be supplied to the country without any problem. The food department officials claimed that the ban would be imposed through the district Nazims and the home department would extend the period if required.