LAHORE: Perturbed at being labeled as “mafia” in the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) report on wheat flour crisis, some flour millers have written an ‘open letter’ to the prime minister urging him to have an overall view of the situation and fix responsibility for it on all those involved, instead of ‘maligning’ only a few.

They also rejected the allegations levelled by some elements against former Punjab food secretary Nasim Sadiq.

“There’s no existence of the so-called flour mafia anywhere. Had it existed it would have been seen (in action) every year and not after a few years when it appears (from nowhere) and dissolves into thin air (after achieving its objective),” says the letter also sent to various federal and provincial food authorities as well as the media.

It also rejects the monopoly notion saying a few mills may set up a cartel and not over 1500 units functional across the country.

Terming ‘demand’ as the real mafia, the letter hints at “delay” in import of the grain when its shortage had been senses by the authorities in November last year. It lists panic buying in the wake of coronavirus outbreak in the country, the bulk purchases by philanthropists for distribution among the needy and large-scale procurement by poultry feed mills after failure of the maize crop and smuggling as usual to some neighbouring countries as factors responsible for the flour shortage.

Written by Khaleeq Arshad and Majid Abdullah, directors of two well-known flour brands, it defended subsidy on the export, arguing it not only earned foreign exchange but also helped the government get rid of the wheat stocks lying in official storages for years losing nutrition.

They urged the government to allow exports, but only of the value-added products of grains even with imported wheat.

They said as multiple federal and provincial departments and forums were involved in making decisions regarding procurement and export of wheat, all of these should be held responsible for such a situation.

Giving a clean chit to the ex-food secretary, they said the feed mills had procured wheat from the open market under the right available to every licence-holder and Mr Sadiq had not extended any ‘undue’ favour to the sector in this respect. Referring to allegations levelled by some millers against the officer who is under a cloud these days, they said the Flour Mills Association might have some personal score to settle with him.

They suggested computerisation of all wheat data from procurement to milling, continuing flour export through land and sea routes, liberal releases of wheat for a “healthy competition” in the industry, fixing mills quota on the basis of performance that should be judged through power bills of the industrial units.

They also called for doing away with subsidy in a phased manner and offering direct support to the people under poverty line, soft loans for wheat and flour storages, giving import policy by August each year if the government fails to achieve procurement target, avoiding subsidy in Ramazan package “as it promotes corruption”, and improving crop reporting system.

Some quarters, in the meantime, have asked the opposition parties to hold accountability of the “flour and sugar mafias” on their own if the government delays the process on one pretext or another.

Rehmat Khan Wardag, president of Tehrik-i-Istaqlal, suggests that the candidates who had lost against the influential business tycoon-cum-politicians in the last general elections must move the Election Commission to get them disqualified for their corruption.

The step, he argues, will bar these “mafia men” from reaching the power corridors again and again and continuing “plundering the taxpayers’ money”.

He also urges the government to immediately arrest all those named in the FIA reports, and release them only after they pay back the “looted money”.

He claims that wheat and sugar had never been exported since 2008 and the millers secured the subsidy worth billions of rupees through “bogus documents” about the export to Afghanistan.

Published in Dawn, April 13th, 2020