PESHAWAR, Sept 2: The chairman of the Pakistan Flour Mills Association, NWFP, Mr Niaz Ahmad, said here on Tuesday the food department was continuing to supply wheat short of the demand of the flour mills, and feared that it would lead to the closure of many mills.

In a press statement, he said the department supplied between 25 and 50 sacks of wheat to each mills daily, which hardly made more than 15 minutes’ grinding. If the short supply continued, the Pakistan Flour Mills Association, NWFP, chief added, most of the flour mills would be compelled to close down.

Commenting on the policy of wheat supply to flour mills, he said it incurred financial losses to the government in the head of subsidy, besides leading to a rise in the wheat flour prices in the province as the present supply was not more than 10 per cent of the daily requirement.

On the one hand, he said, the Frontier flour mills had been compelled not to purchase wheat from Punjab, on the other, they were restricted from importing it from elsewhere.

He said despite the fact that the federal government had been repeatedly requested to allow the NWFP millers to purchase additional wheat from the private sector, the government did not extend any permission to them.

Mr Ahmad demanded that keeping in view the population ratio of the province, the federal government must ensure sufficient supply of wheat to the flour mills to place check on the price spiral.