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| May 23, 2005 | Monday | Rabi-us-Sani 14, 1426 |
Allegations by NWFP ‘baseless’: Wheat movement
LAHORE, May 22: Punjab on Sunday described the NWFP allegation regarding wheat ban as baseless and said it hardly made sense to impose ban on the crop movement when 70 per cent of it had already been harvested. A spokesman of the Punjab government said the confusion was created by the Bhakkar DCO by stopping a few trucks destined for the NWFP for checking licences of traders. He was directed by the federal and provincial governments to do so.
He said the NWFP government overacted and took the entire incident out of context.
The NWFP, he said, was getting around 10,000 tons of wheat daily from the Punjab. During this season, it had already got over 500,000 tons of wheat. “It hardly makes sense in these circumstances to ban wheat movement now when the NWFP has already got over 75 per cent of the crop, he said.
Of the 250 to 300 truckloads going out of the Punjab, he said, 90 per cent were bound for the NWFP. Sindh was getting hardly 18 to 20 trucks and the rest of them went to Balochistan. He said the pattern was being followed for the last couple of weeks and the Punjab had allowed it.
The federal government had also promised to meet any shortfall in consumption through liberal import. “Why should the Punjab ban wheat transportation?” he asked.
Meanwhile, the Punjab food department on Sunday crossed a figure of two million tons of wheat, as it was receiving around 50,000 ton daily. It hopes to touch three million during the next one month.
Farmers are still getting gunny bags. Though the weather had not allowed wheat arrival to gain momentum, the department was certainly eyeing the target, he said.
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