ISLAMABAD, Feb 28: The Federal Food Committee, which was formed last month and which claims to have brought down wheat and flour prices from more than Rs30 to Rs16 per kg across the country, is likely to be wound up because of non-cooperation from provincial food departments and also because of its limited mandate.
The committee was formed last month by the caretaker government amid serious shortage of wheat and flour and spiralling prices across the country.
Informed sources told Dawn that the provincial food departments were not cooperating with the FFC and, instead, obstructing its efforts to expose the elements responsible for the flour crisis.
The departments were also not providing the committee the names of the people who were involved not only in wheat hoarding but also in supplying sub-standard flour which laboratory tests had found to be unfit for human consumption, the sources said.
The members of the FFC, the sources said, were frustrated by limited mandate of only ensuring flour and wheat supplies to markets and not being able to lay hands on the people who were behind the crisis and who violated rules and exploited the masses.
The sources said the FFC had suggested to the government to maintain a strategic wheat reserve of at least seven million tons because of growing domestic consumption and to avoid another crisis.
However, the sources said, the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the cabinet had bulldozed the suggestion and ordered the Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP) to procure only five million tons of wheat this season.
The Economic Coordination Committee not only ignored the FFC’s proposal for keeping the strategic reserves but also fixed the official wheat procurement price at Rs510 per 40-kg.
