SWABI: The price of a 20 kilogram bag of wheat flour has jumped to Rs2,600 from Rs2,200 with the nanbais having also reduced the roti weight in the district, consumers complained on Saturday.

They said it was alarming because wheat harvest was expected to start by end of May 2023, and the upcoming five months would see further rise in flour price, pushing the staple beyond the purchasing power of most people.

“I don’t know how we will afford increasing price of flour. It is the basic requirement of life and without it we can’t survive,” Mujahid Khan of Swabi city said.

Waqar Khan from Maneri Bala said Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf government should not pass blame to the federal government for its ‘bad governance’, and it was its responsibility to bring to an end the flour crisis and stabilise its prices in the province.

Meanwhile, traders in the district headquarters told Dawn they received flour at high rates and were forced to pass on the cost to consumers.

Laiq Khan, general secretary of Markazi Anjuman-i-Tajaran, Swabi, said flour mills were providing the commodity to traders at high price. “The government should rein in the main suppliers and mill owners and stop blaming small shopkeepers for hiking flour rates. Let the government supply flour to us at lower rates, we will reduce the prices accordingly,” he said.

POWER OUTAGES: The consumers, particularly in rural areas of the district, are braving long hours of power outage.

People said they usually suffered excessive loadsheding in summers but it was the first time they experienced prolonged outages in winter.

Abbas Khan of Naro Kili village said officials of Peshawar Electric Supply Company failed to tell a solid reason for the excessive outages, only saying the supply was stopped from Peshawar and Mardan.

TRADER LOOTED: Two unidentified robbers snatched Rs60,000 cash from a trader in Chota Lahor on Saturday.

Abdur Rahim told the police he was on way to his shop in Chota Lahor Bazaar when a car stopped in front of him, inmates climbed out, took out pistols and snatched Rs60,000 cash and his mobile phone from him.

The police registered an FIR against unidentified robbers.

Published in Dawn, january 1st, 2023