LAHORE: The Punjab chapter of the Pakistan Flour Mills Association (PFMA) has set a three-day deadline for the government to meet their demands or they will go on strike from Tuesday.

The food secretary, however, says all issues have been settled during his one-hour-long meeting with them on Friday and that a formal notification as per the PFMA charter of demands will be issued within a day or two.

Millers have been protesting against the new wheat release policy of the food department since its announcement in July.

“The new policy is ambiguous as it makes population as the basis of subsidized wheat quota given to flour millers across the province,” Punjab PFMA Chairman Tahir Hanif Malik told a press conference on Friday.

“As multiple rounds of talks with the Punjab food secretary and food director bore no fruit and things didn’t improve, we’ve decided to go on strike from Tuesday if our demands are not met till Monday.”

The millers demand the population (of the area where a particular mill is located) is not made a basis for deciding wheat quota for that mill instead there be a benchmark of wheat quota per body.

They also want that the change of the extraction ratio of fine, bran and other ingredients from flour be introduced in phases, otherwise the consumers, habitual of eating white flour, would complain about a change in quality. They seek to fix a fresh 20kg bag price and doing away with the condition that the mills shall lift 25pc of their respective allocated grain from districts other than the district they are located in.

They also desire that the government allows free movement of flour from southern Punjab to interior Sindh.

Mr Malik said a meeting of the PFMA decided neither to lift wheat from the food department storage nor to enter into any agreement with the government pertaining to supply of flour till the acceptance of their demands. He argued that the cut in wheat quota was leading to flour shortages in the market on official rates, while it also didn’t match the production cost of the mills.

Punjab Food Secretary Ali Sarfraz Hussain tells Dawn he is unable to understand why the millers threatened a strike when all issues with them had been settled during a meeting earlier in the day.

“A notification in this regard is likely to be issued on Saturday or Monday.”

About the free movement of flour from southern Punjab to interior Sindh, he says the millers have been allowed to grind at least 50pc of their wheat and transport it to Sindh, where flour is costlier by around Rs400 per 20kg bag than in Punjab, after getting an NoC from the relevant district food controller. However, this facility may not be offered for the subsidised wheat the Punjab government is providing to millers, he clarifies.

The flour crisis has triggered a blame game between Sindh and Punjab.

Sindh Minister Saeed Ghani responded to Federal Minister Farrukh Habib that flour was unavailable in Punjab despite release of grain to the mills. He was responding to allegations by Mr Habib that Sindh was creating the flour crisis by not releasing the wheat.

Published in Dawn, October 9th, 2021