17 July 2004	Saturday	28 Jamadi-ul-Awwal 1425

LAHORE, July 16: The federal government on Friday decided to lift the ban on the inter-provincial movement of wheat and conveyed the decision to provinces.

The decision came after a meeting between a delegation of the Pakistan Flour Mills Association (PFMA) and Prime Minister Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain at his chamber in Islamabad.

The PFMA has been pleading for the lifting of the ban for many weeks for what it called bringing stability to domestic market and improving wheat supply in the country. The PFMA sources said the delegation had met the prime minister to protest the continuation of the ban despite his repeated assurances to the contrary.

The PM, as per PFMA's claim, took exception to the violation of his orders, summoned the federal food secretary and asked him to ensure immediate lifting of the ban and convey the decision to all provincial governments.

Talking to Dawn, Food Secretary Ismail Qureshi said the decision to lift the ban had been taken in principle at a meeting on July 7 in Karachi which was attended by all the stakeholders. But, since the minutes of the meeting were not issued, the order was not enforced.

The minutes, he said, were conveyed to all provinces on Friday. "The provincial governments will make a few adjustments during the next couple of days before allowing free movement of wheat," he said.

Talking about the rationale behind the decision, Mr Qureshi said that it had not been taken under the PFMA pressure. "Rather, it is designed at improving supply of wheat, price parity in all the provinces and stabilize the domestic market."

The PFMA leadership also withdrew the strike call. "Since the PM has promised to lift the ban, the association has no reason to go on the strike now," said Bilal Sufi of the PFMA.