Punjab caretaker Chief Minister Mohsin Naqvi on Saturday said the provincial government was going for an independent audit of the free flour distribution programme for the sake of “transparency and financial prudence” in the wake of “baseless allegations” by some PML-N leaders.

PML-N’s Shahid Khaqan Abbasi — who is part of a group of political mavericks holding a series of nationwide seminars on the current challenges being faced by the country — had alleged at a seminar at Lahore’s Government College University last week that Rs20 billion was looted during the free flour distribution programme, first rolled out in Punjab.

He had said: “Recently, Rs84bn worth of [free] flour was distributed. I am sorry to say that approximately Rs20bn was looted. Look at it any which way. What difthe poor man get for whom you spent Rs84bn?”

Abbasi had said it was impossible to deliver on promises within the current system of governance and called for it to be “redefined”.

“The whole system needs to be changed. It has become so corrupt that it cannot deliver, whether in the Centre or the provinces.”

Although the PML-N leader had not singled out the Punjab government, provincial Interim Information Minister Amir Mir had termed Abbasi’s allegations “false and fabricated”. Separately, the province’s food department had also denied any misappropriation.

Abbasi had subsequently doubled down on his claims, adding that his initial estimate of embezzled funds adding up to Rs20 billion was in fact undervalued.

Addressing the topic today, CM Naqvi said: “We have decided to go for an immediate audit through the Auditor General Pakistan office, and simultaneously through a private audit firm of established international repute.”

He added that a request was also sent to the chairman of the National Accountability Bureau to verify if anything resembling the allegations was committed by any “nefarious elements”.

Free flour scheme

In March, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had announced that “the poorest of the poor” would get wheat flour (Atta) for free during Ramazan. The package was first implemented in Punjab and then in other parts of the country.

The prime minister had directed the authorities to chalk out a strategy for the supply of flour to poor families “as soon as possible”.

However, the programme was marred by violence and deaths as citizens thronged distribution points amid a significant increase in inflation in the country. Incidents of stampedes, chaos and snatching of flour bags at the distribution points were reported from various towns of the province.

Last month, the Punjab caretaker government succumbed to the pressure of the federal authorities and approved the expansion of the project at an additional cost of Rs35bn.

The package was to initially cost around Rs53bn to the provincial kitty as the government was to release 537,000 tonnes of wheat from its stocks to the flour mills for grinding and providing the commodity at the distribution points. The operational cost – administration, security and transportation – of the project was estimated to be Rs7bn.

Sources said that neither the Punjab government nor bureaucracy was in favour of the scheme in its present form which was leading to deaths and injuries to the deserving people due to overcrowding and mismanagement at the distribution points.

Officials engaged in the flour distribution also blamed the Punjab Information Technology Board’s ‘flawed’ app developed on the database of the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) for the inordinate delays in the distribution of the commodity.

Sources said the provincial authorities made an abortive attempt to convince the premier in their March 7 meeting that deserving people should instead be paid in cash through the BISP database or provided subsidies in the powers bills for offsetting the impact of the historically high inflation.

They said the prime minister also suggested that the subsidy on the flour which the Punjab government was already providing to the masses before setting in of Ramazan at a rate of Rs648 per 10kg bag, could be further increased to facilitate the downtrodden to avoid the mess likely to be caused by the free flour distribution at the makeshift points.

But, the premier rejected this option too and insisted on implementing the plan he desired to introduce.