25 April 2004	Sunday	04 Rabi-ul-Awwal 1425

KARACHI, April 24: The Sindh government is taking measures to ensure transportation of at least 4,500 to 5,000 tonnes of wheat everyday to Karachi from farmers in the interior of Sindh. Officials informed Dawn on Saturday that provincial food officials held a series of meetings with millers , wholesalers and retailers during the last two days.

"Despite the official restriction on inter-districts wheat movement, at least 50 flour mills of Karachi will be allowed to purchase wheat directly from farmers in the interior of Sindh and transport it into the city," a high-placed source revealed.

He said that check posts were being set up at three places in the interior where a record of wheat transportation to individual mills would be maintained.

Under the Food Control Act 1958, flour mills are allowed to keep wheat stock equal to their per week grinding capacity.

The flour mills will be issued special permits for wheat transportation to Karachi, but these mills will have to keep the food department informed about their daily grinding, stocks and sales at the rates fixed by the government.

The government had issued notices to 10 flour mills for over-charging and at least seven mills are reported to have been closed as punitive measure.

The source said that steps were being taken to ensure a steady wheat supply to Karachi despite the official restriction on its inter-districts movement. This restriction is imposed in Sindh to facilitate official procurement of 600,000 tonnes of wheat for strategic reserves.

The restriction has started pushing up wheat and flour prices in the open market over the past week. The trend has created fear that the flour price may again hit the mark of Rs17-18 per kilogram if no remedial measures were taken.

"An 80-kg bag of chakki atta was sold at Rs950 on Saturday in wholesale market of Jodia Bazaar," Mohammad Shakeel, Chairman of the Jodia Bazar Grocers Association told Dawn by telephone on Saturday afternoon. It means the wholesale price of premium quality flour is Rs11.87 a kilogram, and according to Mr Shakeel this flour should be available to consumer at Rs13 per kg.In Sindh, there has been an unofficial restriction on inter-district movement of wheat for almost a month and this has caused a scarcity of the commodity in Karachi where everyday demand is estimated at around 4,000 tonnes.

The Sindh government has opened more than 400 centres in the province to procure wheat from farmers.

With 70 flour mills and about 150 small chakkis having a total grinding capacity of about 8,000-9,000 tonnes a day (more than twice the city's demand), Karachi is attracting a big inflow of wheat ultimately impeding the official procurement.

Punjab government also threw a spanner in Sindh government's procurement programme by restricting inter-provincial wheat movement under section 144.

Under a loan agreement with the Asian Development Bank, Pakistan government has given an undertaking that wheat movement would be kept free.

The ADB wants all the four provincial food departments dissolved. It allows only one million tonnes of wheat to be kept as strategic reserve and that, too, through the PASSCO.

The federal government has decided to build up the strategic wheat reserve of about 5.5 million tonnes this year which would cost the public exchequer anywhere Rs65 to Rs70 billion.

Pakistan experienced a wheat crisis during 1997, immediately after Nawaz Sharif government was installed, when there were literally hunger marches and a few flour mills were burnt down in the NWFP.

This season, wheat shortage hit Karachi just before Ramazan in October. The shortage developed into a crisis early this year which has been lingering on. The situation did not improve remarkably even amid reports that Pakistan would harvest about 20 million tonnes of wheat by May next.

Wheat position will be discussed at a high-level meeting in Islamabad on Monday. This meeting was earlier scheduled for Saturday but had to be put off for certain reasons.