June 29, 2008	Sunday	Jamadi-us-Sani 24, 1429

KARACHI, June 28: The US government has endorsed Pakistan government’s assessment of wheat smuggling to Afghanistan and has estimated it at around 1.8 million tons during the last season. It continues this season also.

“We have asked US administration to meet Afghanistan’s wheat demand this season,’’ a senior officer of the federal food ministry in Islamabad informed Dawn by telephone on Saturday.

“For years together, we were providing a few hundred thousand tons of wheat to Afghanistan every year,’’ the officer said. Last season, however, the wheat flow to Afghanistan jumped to unusual high level. The only explanation is that a large number of Afghan refugees, who went back from Peshawar and Quetta to their homes, got addicted to Pakistan’s hard white wheat and hence the unending demand for it in Kabul and Kandhar.

As wheat smuggling to Afghanistan shows no respite so far, the Punjab government’s prescription is to stop wheat supply, since the beginning of harvesting, to two border provinces, the NWFP and Balochistan. This has caused a protest and unending outcry in the two provinces against Punjab.

“Imagine if we stop gas supply to Punjab,’’ a senior bureaucrat in Quetta quipped when his attention was drawn towards reports of scarcity of wheat flour in many parts of Balochistan. Flour mills industry leaders in Quetta are also bitter on Punjab government’s decision to stop wheat supply and provide wheat flour only on permit.

A consensus view of the NWFP and Balochistan millers is that Punjab wants to protect and promote its flour milling industry at the cost of two provinces, which is causing unemployment and hardships to the

consumers.

“It is the responsibility of security forces under federal government to guard and seal international borders,” a businessman remarked and he explained that provincial governments were not responsible to check and monitor movements on international borders.

“Why flour mills and consumers in NWFP and Balochistan are suffering if the security forces are not able to seal the borders,” Naeem Butt, the president of All Pakistan Flour Mills Association in Peshawar said.

The flour mill industry leaders of NWFP and Balochistan call this inter- provincial restriction on wheat movement from Punjab as “illegal and unconstitutional.” “Punjab government is providing 8,500 tons of wheat and wheat flour to Peshawar every month,’’ a food ministry official informed.

The official conceded that the Punjab government’s decision to restrict inter- district and inter-provincial wheat movement has caused lot of heart burning and bitterness in NWFP and Balochistan and that it was illegal and unconstitutional.

“In virtually every meeting of Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the cabinet or of the Minfal we tried to convince the Punjab government of serious political and economic implications of its decision to restrict wheat movement,’’ he said adding there have been some relaxations in these restrictions.

Naeem Butt, however, contests this assertion of the food ministry official and said wheat flour is being supplied against permits that it is very difficult to get into Punjab. Flour importers in NWFP have to go all the way to Lahore to get permits and finally to district authorities in some border districts. “There are hassles and some money involved to get a permit for a few tons of wheat flour,’’ he alleged.

The NWFP milling industry leaders have already filed a constitutional petition in the Supreme Court against the Punjab government’s decision to restrict wheat movement. Naeem Butt said that the petition will come up for hearing on July 4 next. The millers had filed a similar petition against the Punjab government’s restrictions in 2003, which was decided in favour of industry leaders.

Prices of wheat, wheat flour and bread are high in NWFP and Balochistan mainly because of the Punjab government’s restrictions. Prices of wheat and wheat flour in Karachi, too, are showing no signs of respite. Karachi now gets wheat from only three districts of the province on permits.

“More than 60 per cent of 78 mills in Karachi are closed because of wheat scarcity,’’ a leader of flour mills industry said.

Wheat prices touched Rs2,300 and 2,350 for a 100 kg bag in Karachi as very little quantity is trickling in from three districts, from other districts and from Punjab at a very high price. Wheat flour is now being sold at Rs27 to Rs32 a kg in Karachi.

“Our job is to make wheat available in the market which we have done,’’ Mir Nadir Magsi, the Sindh food minister said on telephone. Prices of wheat and wheat flour, he said, are the responsibility of city government.

With the holy month of Ramazan hardly 12 weeks away, prices of all essential items -- wheat flour, sugar, pulses, milk, curded, vegetables, edible oil has started showing a rising trend. Market analysts say that prices fixation and monitoring may be the responsibility of the city government but an effective mechanism to ensure steady supply and stable prices can only be ensured if a joint strategy is worked at all the three tiers—federal, provincial and district.

The government is giving final touches to a grand Ramazan package,’’ the food ministry official said from Islamabad.