May 06, 2008	Tuesday	Rabi-us-Sani 29, 1429

ABBOTTABAD, May 5: Provincial Food Minister Shuja Salim Khan has said that the Punjab government has stopped wheat supply to the NWFP after April 30 due to which the wheat flour crisis in the frontier province has worsened.

Addressing a press conference here at the Press Club, the NWFP food minister said that a series of meetings was held at the level of chief ministers, ministers and secretaries of food between the two provinces, and even the PML-N chief Mian Nawaz Sharif and Senior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan were consulted in this respect, but all efforts went in vain.

Mr Salim Khan said that the NWFP government had to pay Rs5 billion as subsidy to buy the wheat and to meet the requirements of not only the province but also of Afghanistan due to latter’s close historical relations with the people of the NWFP.

He asked the federal government to meet the requirements of Afghanistan to help reduce the burden on the province.

The provincial food minister said that Punjab supplied the NWFP 90,000 tonnes of wheat, out of which, 70,000 tonnes were imported, which was quite low in quality.

The provincial food minister said that a comprehensive food policy was going to be drafted to meet the wheat shortfall in future.