CHARSADDA: President of Charsadda Flour Mills Association Murshid Ali Khan advocate has termed restriction on wheat supply from Punjab to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa without any formal notification as unconstitutional act and demanded immediate restoration of wheat transportation to the province.

Speaking at a press conference, he urged Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Field Marshal Asim Munir, Chief Justice of Pakistan Yahya Afridi, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi and other authorities to take immediate notice of the issue.

He warned that if wheat supply was not restored, hundreds of flour mills in the province would shut down, leaving thousands of workers unemployed and triggering a severe food crisis along with an abnormal increase in flour prices. Flour mill owners and other representatives of the association were also present on the occasion.

Murshid Ali Khan said the Punjab government had halted wheat transportation to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa without issuing any official notification or written order, calling it a clear violation of Article 151 of the Constitution, which guarantees free movement of goods between provinces.

He said despite uninterrupted supply of electricity and gas from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to Punjab, the province was being subjected to discriminatory treatment in return. He further alleged that trucks transporting wheat to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa were being forced to pay heavy bribes amounting to hundreds of thousands of rupees, adding that the practice was leading to corruption and placing an additional financial burden on public.

He urged the federal government to end what he described as discriminatory policies against the province. The association president said Khyber Pakhtunkhwa produced around one million metric tonnes of wheat annually, while its total requirement exceeded 5.3 million metric tonnes, making the province heavily dependent on Punjab for wheat supply.

He said that suspension of wheat transportation had already created a severe flour and wheat crisis in the province. He said the flour mills industry had been pushed to the brink of collapse due to disruptions in wheat supply over the past one and a half years, while thousands of labourers faced the risk of unemployment.

He warned that if the situation persisted, the price of a 20-kilogram flour bag could exceed Rs3,000. Murshid Ali Khan said the matter was not merely a concern for flour mill owners, but one that directly affected food security and the availability of affordable bread for poor people across KP.

He appealed to political and social leadership, including JUI-F, ANP and PML-N, to play an effective role in ensuring restoration of wheat supply in the larger public interest. He added that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, as the premier of the country, should ensure equal treatment to all provinces.

Published in Dawn, May 9th, 2026