DERA GHAZI KHAN, Sept 17: Wheat and flour smuggling to the NWFP and Balochistan via Bewata check-post on Dera-Quetta Road and Indus Highway via Ramak check-post is going on despite a ban on the movement of these commodities.

According to details, the food department had imposed a ban on wheat and flour movement after a smuggling scandal surfaced in which the officials of the food department, highway patrolling police and border military police (BMP) deployed at Sakhi Sarwar, Bewata and Triman check-posts allegedly played a vital role.

The provincial food director had spent a couple of weeks here at the Circuit House to trace the main characters of smuggling mafia within the department, but to no avail. In place of Deputy Director Dr Nasir Khan, Bahawalpur Food Deputy Director Rao Tauheed was given additional charge of Dera Ghazi Khan.

He caught food inspector Mahr Akram on charges of facilitating smugglers on Triman border check-post. The police arrested two more employees of the food department, Mumtaz and Aamir, on a tip-off by the food inspector.

The arrest of three employees of created sense of insecurity among other employees allegedly involved in the scandal, therefore they started a weeklong demonstration against the deputy director.

Despite all measure taken by the government, the mafia was still in action.

A food department official told Dawn on condition of anonymity that wheat/flour smuggling could not be stopped as millions of rupees were involved in the scandal.

He said smugglers obtained Rs300,000 profit per truck load because they procured a 100kg bag of wheat against Rs1,800 and sold it in neighbouring provinces against Rs2,800.

Some border check-post officials told Dawn that wheat and flour was being smuggled unchecked as they were bound to obey the orders of their superiors.

Sources alleged that wheat imported by the Trading Corporation of Pakistan was also being smuggled along with local wheat to the neighbouring provinces.

BMP sources said that it was true that smuggling was going on but surreptitiously and nobody bothered to check trucks laden with wheat and flour bags traveling to their destinations in the NWFP and Balochistan.

A retired food department officer suggested that all consignments of wheat or flour should be transported by NLC vehicles instead of private vehicles.