PESHAWAR, Sept 9: The Punjab government will provide 100,000 tons of wheat to the NWFP flour mills from its official stores in a move that appears to be aimed at denying the Frontier province's flour millers access to Punjab's open market, sources said.

In accordance with an understanding brokered by the federal government in July, the Punjab government had consented to allow the NWFP flour millsto procure 100,000 tons of wheat.

"Previously, the millers were to procure wheat from anywhere in Punjab against permits that were to be issued by the provincial government," said an official of the NWFP government.

However, under a revised decision, the Punjab government has intimated to the Pakistan Flour Mills Association (PFMA), NWFP chapter, that procurement would be allowed from its godowns situated in different parts of the province.

The designated centres from where wheat procurement would be made by the NWFP flour mills are situated in Layya, Mianwali, Muzzafargarh, Rajanpur, Bahawalpur and Khanewal districts.

The change of mind on the part of Punjab government has been seen by business circles here as an attempt to disallow the NWFP flour millers access to wheat's open market in Punjab.

The move was apparently designed to avoid misuse of the facility on the part of unscrupulous elements among the NWFP flour millers, market sources said. Meanwhile, delay in the provision of wheat from Punjab has prolonged the crisis the NWFP flour mills have been confronting for the last four months.

The federal government's instructions to the government of Punjab asking it to allow flour millers of the Frontier province to lift a specific quantity of wheat from its jurisdiction has not yet been complied with.

"Even though one and a half month has passed since the instructions were issued, the NWFP flour mills have not yet been allowed to lift wheat from Punjab," said a well-placed source.

On July 19, the then Water and Power Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao, who also headed the inter-provincial coordination committee, had given an assurance to the Pakistan Flour Mills Association (PFMA), NWFP, that the government of Punjab would be made to allow NWFP's flour mills to procure a specific quantity of wheat from its jurisdiction.

Under this arrangement, the NWFP flour mills were allowed to procure 100,000 tons of wheat from the open market of Punjab - an understanding to which the government of Punjab had also consented at that time.

However, the matter still hangs in the balance as the government of Punjab has not yet issued permits to NWFP flour mills, prolonging their agony they have been enduring since April when Punjab Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervez Ilahi had banned transportation of wheat from his area of jurisdiction to other parts of the country.