PESHAWAR, Feb 5: Pushed out of market by heavily protected competitors in Punjab, the Frontier flour mills have decided to seek legal relief from the Supreme Court in an attempt to ensure free and fair competition.

A member of the Pakistan Flour Mills Association, NWFP, told Dawn that although they had invoked the jurisdiction of the Peshawar High Court last week for a ruling against provincial subsidy on wheat, the local millers, practically, could not re- enter the market even if the controversial subsidy was declared unconstitutional. He added that they would seek a ruling from the Supreme Court for placing restriction on movement of flour from Punjab to the NWFP.

He claimed that the flour mills in Punjab had acquired huge stocks of low-priced wheat both from the market and the Punjab Food Department which were sufficient to control the NWFP market till months after the new crop. The Frontier mills, he explained, could stage a comeback only when a single official wheat price was enforced countrywide and the low-priced stocks of the last bumper crop were exhausted by Punjab.

The only way to overcome the crisis, the association believed, was to seek a ban on trading flour across the Attock Bridge. Such a restriction could only be imposed by the Supreme Court to enforce the right of trade and business enshrined in Article 18 of the Constitution.

By Article 151(4) of the Constitution, any such restriction to prevent or alleviate a serious shortage of any  essential commodity in a province can be imposed only through an Act of the Provincial Assembly and that too with the consent of the President. Legal experts said the Sharifs never bothered the Constitution  and the same policy is being followed without taking into care its fallout on  inter- provincial relationships.

In the absence of provincial assembly, the court was the only forum to protect the interest of the province.

A counsel dealing with cases of the association said that the enforcement  of  a fundamental right countrywide  was  the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court and the millers prefer to take the subject to the proper forum.

The restriction on the product of a province to enter the market of another, experts believe, would constitute a rather interesting case of free and fair competition under the fundamental rights enshrined in the Constitution.