PESHAWAR, Dec 5: The NWFP government has banned export of wheat flour to Afghanistan, apparently to curtail price spiral of the commodity in the local market.

Naeem Butt, chairman of the All Pakistan Flour Mills Association, told Dawn that officials of the provincial food department, accompanied by police, had on Wednesday seized near Hayatabad more than a dozen trucks going to Afghanistan.

He termed the provincial government’s action illegal and contrary to federal government’s policies. He said wheat flour was an exportable item under the federal trade policy.

Mr Butt said that last month Frontier Corps personnel deployed at border checkpoints of Khyber and Kurram agencies had stopped more than two dozen trucks from crossing into Afghanistan. The trucks were later allowed to cross the border when the commerce ministry was involved.

He said they had contacted the secretary and the director of the NWFP food department to know under which law the movement of exportable items to Afghanistan had been stopped. The two officials, he added, had failed to give a satisfactory reply and said the ban had been imposed by the provincial government.

Despite attempts, other senior authorities of the food department could not be contacted to know details of the decision to ban flour export.

Prices of flour in Peshawar and other parts of the province have been on the rise for a couple of months and reached new peaks during the last one week.

On Wednesday, a 20kg bag of flour was available at Rs390 in the wholesale market and its retail prices ranged from Rs410 to 425.

The provincial government daily issues 1,500 tons wheat quota to local flour mills which are supposed to supply flour to designated fair price shops at Rs305 per 20kg bag as directed by NWFP chief secretary Sahibzada Riaz Noor.

But consumers and dealers complain that no supply is made to these so-called fair price shops and mill owners prefer to export flour to Afghanistan to get a better price.