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QUETTA, June 2: Provincial Food Minister Maulana Noor Mohammad has supported the strike by flour mill owners and held Islamabad and Punjab responsible for the wheat crisis in Balochistan.
The province wide strike entered second day on Wednesday, causing an acute shortage of flour and wheat in the province. Flour was not available easily in the provincial capital as traders running the flour business have started hoarding.
The minister termed the strike the only option available to mill owners. Talking to Dawn he said the provincial food department had not released monthly wheat quota to the Balochistan mills as the province had not received its required quota from Islamabad.
Besides, he added, the ban put by the Punjab government on the inter-provincial movement of wheat, had also added to the miseries. He pointed out that seven million local population and 500,000 Afghan refugees in Balochistan needed 72,000 tons of wheat monthly.
He said that Balochistan government had asked the federal government to resolve this problem but so for no step had been taken by Islamabad. He claimed that Punjab was smuggling wheat and flour to Afghanistan in the name of sending to Balochistan.
Maulana Noor Mohammad said that he had informed the Chief Minister Jam Mir Mohammad Yousuf and Senior Minister Maulana Mohammad Wasay in Islamabad about the situation.
BAR POLLS: Election of the Balochistan High Court Bar Association would held on 26th, said an announcement of the president of the BHCBA, Senator Amanullah Kanrani while speaking at a Press conference here on Wednesday.
He said the election would be held under the new rules and regulations prepared by the BHCBA after 25 years, as the earlier bars were working under the rules of Sindh Bar.
He said that the term of the present officer bearers was up to June 29, but the executive committee of BHCBA decided to hold early election to set a new democratic tradition.
None of the present office bearers would take part in the coming elections, according to a decision of the organizing committee, he added. He said the committee had also approved new rules and regulations for the first time in Balochistan.
US INTERFERENCE: Muttihada Majlis Amal Balochistan leader Maulana Noor Muhammad has said that the alliance would continue opposing American interference in Muslim countries because the Washington administration was responsible for the atrocities committed in Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine.
Speaking at a press conference here on Wednesday MNA Maulana Noor Muhammad provincial leader of MMA condemned the government policy in Wana that caused excesses against the tribal people which was not in the interest of country.
Provincial Minister for Local Bodies Hafiz Hussain Shurudy, and Minister for Irrigation Maulana Abdur Rahim Bazai, and other leaders of MMA were also present on the occasion.
Maulana Noor Muhammad alleged that President Musharraf formulated his policies at the behest of President Bush and was so influenced by the Washington administration that he forgot Pakistan's interest.
He announced that MMA would continue the struggle through constitutional means to mobilize the people against American excesses in Iraq and Afghanistan adding that American imperialism could not suppress the movements that were countering the occupation forces in Baghdad and Kabul.
