KARACHI, May 5: The supply of wheat and flour in the city continues to remain uncertain for the second consecutive day after an extended three-day weekend holidays causing a price spiral in both the wholesale and retail markets.
Flour is being delivered mainly from Punjab was being sold at Rs1,100 for a 80 kg bag and its price in the retail was from Rs16 to Rs17 plus a kilo. A ban on wheat movement in Punjab and Sindh has activated more than 500 flour mills in Punjab plus a big fleet of private transporters for supply of flour to three other provinces.
Market sources in Karachi say that wholesalers are reluctant to enter into long term arrangements with Punjab millers because there are reports that Sindh government may consider relaxing restriction on wheat movement.
A loud whisper moving around the local grain markets suggests that four flour mills in Lahore, Sheikhupura and Islamabad belonging to a powerful political and business family of Gujrat and about a dozen others of their cronies is making a big fortune from the current wheat crisis in all parts of the country.
Meanwhile in Sindh, the government has offered permits to the millers in Karachi for procurement and transportation of wheat from Hyderabad, Mirpurkhas and Sanghar. "There is no wheat in Hyderabad and Mirpurkhas and it is in meagre quantities in Sanghar," Malik Naeem, the Vice Chairman of Pakistan Flour Mills Association, Sindh told Dawn by telephone.
He said that Sindh government has offered 350 tons of wheat in a week for each of the 80 mills in Karachi against a permit to be issued by the Food Department. Malik Naeem and millers held a meeting with the Sindh Food Minister Arif Jatoi and other officials.
Mir Mohammad Parihar, the Secretary of Food in Sindh said that the government was making a serious and sincere effort to regulate wheat trade. This regulation, he assured, would be transparent and responsive to public scrutiny.
He said that henceforth whatever quantity of wheat would be released from government stocks to the flour mills would be made known to all. It would be for the general public to keep a watch how much flour was being made available in the market and at what price.
The Food Secretary expressed the hope that the system of wheat supply to mills being introduced in the province for a week will work with improvement in the future. "We have serious reservations on this proposal and have urged the Sindh government to relax at least for one week section 144 on wheat movement," he said.
He said that the Punjab and Sindh governments had restricted wheat movement on the plea to procure wheat for building up a strategic reserve so that there was no shortages in the future. But the funny side of this strategy is that people in three provinces were facing flour shortages and paying a heavy price.
In all this wheat crisis and flour shortage and price spiral, the Pakistan Flour Mills Association gives the look of a divided house. The NWFP chapter of the Association with 260 mills is on a warpath and observing strike against Punjab government's decision.
The Sindh chapter of the Association is confining its confrontation with the Sindh government only and criticising Punjab in low tone. The Punjab chapter of the Association is mysteriously quiet and offering a tacit support to its provincial government. Quite a few members of the Punjab flour mills association are powerful businessmen and politicians.
