QUETTA, July 4: The Pakistan Flour Mills Association has threatened to call a strike if the Punjab government does not lift its ban on wheat transportation to Balochistan, the NWFP and Sindh by July 15.

Speaking at a news conference at the press club on Sunday, PFMA Chairman Naiz Ahmed Naiz said that if Punjab did not lift the restriction, the federal government should allow mill owners to import wheat from India to meet the shortage.

He said the association's executive committee, in its meeting here on Saturday, had noted that the Punjab government's policy had led to a wheat crisis in three provinces.

He asserted that under the constitution no provincial government or assembly could impose such a ban. He said only parliament could take such a step. He accused the Punjab food department of paving the way for black marketing.

He said supply of flour bags to other provinces had negated the Punjab government's contention that the ban had been imposed to preserve wheat stock. He said the lukewarm attitude of the federal government could cause the collapse of flour mills in the smaller provinces. He said there were 52 flour mills in Balochistan, 260 in the NWFP and 150 in Sindh.

He said Prime Minister Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain had said during a visit to the NWFP that there should be no restriction on wheat transportation among the provinces. He said the wheat requirement in the NWFP was more than that in Punjab because the farmers fulfilled their owned needs in the wheat growing areas.

Replying to a question, he said the federal government should grant subsidy on wheat to maintain equal price in the four provinces. He said the destruction of the flour mills business would not be a good omen for investment.

He called upon President Gen Pervez Musharraf to help resolve the crisis.