PESHAWAR: A Peshawar High Court bench on Wednesday directed Khyber Pakhtunkhwa food minister to seriously tackle the issue of growing prices of flour and bread in the province and also discuss the matter in the provincial cabinet.

The bench of Justice Qaiser Rashid Khan and Justice Ijaz Anwar also directed the food department to submit a detailed report on the issue, especially about availability of wheat and flour and steps taken to control prices of the commodity as well as that of roti by the bread sellers.

Provincial Food Minister Qalander Lodhi, who appeared on court’s notice, told the bench that government had given approval for import of wheat and once that imported wheat was available, the problem would be resolved.

A day earlier, the bench while hearing a petition filed by Pakistan Flour Mills Association North Zone (KP) had summoned the minister, food secretary and Peshawar deputy commissioner and asked them to apprise the court about the steps taken to address the issue.

Advocate Syed Taimoor Shah appeared for the petitioner and requested the bench to declare as illegal a notification issued by provincial government on July 21, 2020, commonly called as Milling Policy as the same was against public interest and discriminatory.

Seeks detailed report from food department

He contended that the mills in the province were not in a position to compete with that of other provinces due to faulty grinding policy. He pointed out that both in Punjab and KP, the issue price of wheat was Rs1,475 per 40 kilograms but in Punjab that price was inclusive of bardana (gunny bag) while in KP additional Rs150 was charged per empty gunny bag.

Moreover, the counsel stated that the ratio of extraction from wheat in Punjab was 65:22:13 which meant that 65 per cent flour, 22 per cent fine and 13 per cent bran were extracted. However, he said, in KP the ratio was 12 per cent bran and 88 per cent flour with no fine flour.

Despite the mills in KP were at a disadvantaged position, the government fixed ex-mill rate as Rs837 which was the same in Punjab.

During course of hearing, the bench observed that merely by inaugurating the BRT project the issues of common people could not be addressed. The bench asked the minister to take personal interest and ascertain the causes behind the ongoing flour crises in the province.

The court also directed the deputy commissioner to personally visit markets and inspect the overall situation as citizens were crying due to increasing prices of bread.

The deputy commissioner was asked to ensure that the bread sellers (nanbais) were not overcharging people and not degrading the quality of bread.

KP Advocate General Shumail Ahmad Butt also told the bench that the government had been importing wheat to address the issue. The bench asked him to ensure that the imported wheat was of good quality and fit for human consumption.

Published in Dawn, August 27th, 2020