ISLAMABAD, Jan 13: The nascent Federal Food Committee (FFC) formed by President Pervez Musharraf is faced with the daunting task of simultaneously coordinating with Wapda, railways, the petroleum ministry and transport associations.
Sources told Dawn that the FFC apparently lacks authority to ensure the smooth supply of electricity and gas to flour mills.
The Pakistan Flour Mills Association (PSMA) has held the energy crisis and transportation problems responsible (besides the lack of supplies) for the flour crisis.
But, the question is whether the FFC possess the powers and resources to ameliorate the existing acute energy crisis and improve the transportation system which has now been hit hard by the ongoing political crisis after the assassination of Benazir Bhutto.
The FFC’s mandate is to avert overall food crisis.
Its organisational structure shows that it can only accomplish its task if it makes the ministries of water and power, railways, petroleum and agriculture function efficiently.
So, controlling the flour crisis directly depends on controlling the energy and transportation problems. And, those who have formed the committee have admitted this fact in its very first meeting.
The sources said that now the challenge ahead of the FFC was how to run its planning wing which comprises of the above mentioned ministries, the PSMA, Rangers and FC, and transporters associations.
While the FFC is here to remove administrative failures, running its own organs would prove a potential challenge for it in the coming days.
The sources said the committee had refused to go after people whose names were part of a list of possible hoarders.
The list has been provided by the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) to the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock (Minfal) at a time when wheat flour crisis had just started to aggravate a month ago.
The sources said the FFC had refused to go by the list fearing some grave political repercussions of such an action as many of these hoarders have apparent links with some political elites who could be the likely part of the next political set up.
Similarly, a counter reaction from hoarders is also expected. So, the FFC has a totally different approach to dealing with the issue.
Resultantly, for the first time in the history of Pakistan, the government has started meeting 70 per cent wheat requirement of mills – 32,000 tons a day. Normally, the government does not exceed the limit of satiating 30 per cent wheat requirement of mills.
The government is providing subsidised wheat to mills at Rs465 per 40 kg. One has to pay almost double (Rs900) to buy the same quantity of wheat in the open market.The FFC, insiders say, has no intention of recovering wheat from the hoarders, but rather ensuring that the 32,000 tons it directly releases to mills daily must reach the mills and from mills to people in the shape of flour. This is short-term solution to the problem until the harvest of the new wheat crop starts from March.
So, Rangers and the Frontier Constabulary are here to only monitor the supply of wheat from government godowns to mills and the flour supply chain onward.
There are no estimates available with the FFC that how much wheat is in the control of the hoarders. But it is clear that Pakistan wheat has made its way to far away regions where prices are Rs1,100 to Rs1,200 per 40kg.
An official said nothing could be expected from the committee as for as unearthing the “black sheep” was concerned.
