PESHAWAR: Pakistan Flour Mills Association (PFMA), Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chapter on Friday warned the government that it would shut all the flour mills in the province by Monday or Tuesday if wheat supply from Punjab is not restored immediately.

Speaking at a news conference at the Peshawar Press Club, PFMA provincial chairman Haji Mohammad Iqbal demanded of the federal and provincial governments of KP and Punjab to intervene in the matter and ensure smooth inter-provincial supply of wheat. “If wheat transportation is not restored immediately then the KP people will face serious flour crisis,” he said. Owing to the ban, flour prices are increasing with each passing day, he added.

The millers, their workers and flour dealers also staged a demonstration outside the press club. The protesters also marched on different roads and chanted slogans against the Punjab government and its bureaucracy for imposing ban on wheat transportation.

Mr Iqbal said if ban on wheat transportation from Punjab was not lifted, the association would launch a country-wide protest.

Commenting on the allegation of flour smuggling to Afghanistan, he said how the commodity could be smuggled to the neighbouring country if the government had deployed personnel of 17 departments and agencies on the border.

He claimed Punjab’s ban on wheat transportation was unconstitutional and illegal. “Article 151 of the Constitution doesn’t allow any restriction on the inter-provincial transportation of wheat or any other edible commodity,” he said. He said the Punjab government’s move was creating “hatred” among the federating units.

“Ban on supply of wheat was meant to close flour mills in KP and deprive thousands of workers of their jobs,” he said.

The PFMA provincial chairman said Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif should announce a special package to save KP’s flour mills, which employed thousands of people, from destruction.

He said Punjab produced around 80 per cent of the country’s wheat and KP depended on it to meet its wheat and flour needs. He said KP required five million tonnes of wheat annually but its production totalled only 0.8 million tonnes.

Mr Iqbal said Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had around 260 flour mills, but almost 70 per cent of them had stopped operations due to ban on wheat supply to the province. He demanded of the prime minister, the Punjab’s chief minister and other relevant quarters to step in for the immediate abolition of checkposts and end to the ban on inter-provincial wheat transportation.

He also said flour mills of KP should be allowed to purchase wheat from private groups in Punjab.

Published in Dawn, May 6th, 2023