LAHORE, Oct 14: Punjab would continue meeting wheat and flour requirements of other provinces even if it had to cut its own needs, said Adviser to Chief Minister Pervaiz Rasheed here on Tuesday.

According to an official handout, Mr Rasheed said that though Punjab stocks were less than those of other provinces, it was providing flour to other provinces through a “monitored mechanism”.

The monitoring, which was result of memorandums of understanding (MoUs) with other provinces, was in fact designed to check smuggling of flour. An elaborate system of checks and balances was necessary to check flour movement within the country and ensure smooth supply, he said.

Punjab has only 2.1 million tons of stocks this year whereas it had 2.2 million tons last year. Sindh had 0.446 million tons last year against 0.469 million tons this year. The NWFP had 68,699 tons last year during these days whereas it currently holds 154,623 tons. Similarly, Balochistan had 29,846 tons last year and now it has 108,802 tons.

These statistics only proved that stocks in other provinces were much healthier than those of Punjab, he said.

The daily flour requirement of the NWFP is around 8,500 tons but it released only 4,000 tons of wheat. Balochistan needs 2,000 tons every day but its releases have not exceeded more than 1,100 tons.

It only proves that if other release wheat according to their requirements, the flour situation could easily be overcome, Mr Rasheed says.

Punjab allocated 124,000 tons wheat for the NWFP, but it (the NWFP government) has lifted only 90,000 tons. Balochistan, which was given 30,000 tons from, has lifted only 6,000 tons, he said.

In addition to the wheat, Punjab has so far provided NWFP 400,000 ton of flour and 100,000 tons of fine flour whereas Balochistan has also received 85,000 tons of flour and 20,000 tons of fine flour, reads the handout.

The Punjab was doing its best to keep the flour supply situation under control, but others also need to cooperate in this regard, he said.

He said that Punjab was promised 1.8 million tons of imported wheat, but was given 480,000 tons so far. It needed 1.3 million tons more to meet its food requirements, he said, adding that if the imported wheat did not arrive on time, even Punjab would be in trouble.