LAHORE, Aug 2: Flour millers on Saturday pulled out of price negotiations with the Punjab government, accusing the latter of cheating and going back on words.

At a press conference, Pakistan Flour Mills Association (PFMA) Punjab chapter chairman Habibur Rehman Leghari said the millers had decided not to hold talks with government due to be held on Saturday.

He alleged some of the Food Department officials were not sincere in stabilising flour prices and were misguiding the chief minister as well as the millers.

The millers, he said, were trying to hammer out price agreement but the government’s dependence on administrative actions had forced them out of dialogue.

“Though millers do not plan to increase price right away, they would move the court against the undue interference of the government,” he said.

The Food Department had agreed to revise price in the last week of May but then went back on its words when Shahbaz Sharif took over as chief minister.

Since then, the department officials had conveyed wrong impression to the chief minister, saving their own skin at the cost of millers and the common man, he said.