ISLAMABAD, Jan 7: The supply of substandard wheat flour to consumers has been continuing across the country for the past few weeks because of shortfall in the supply of wheat to millers.

Official sources told Dawn here on Friday that flour shortage had also hit markets in Rawalpindi and Islamabad and rural areas of the NWFP at a time when the harvest season was still four months' away in Punjab and Sindh and a month more in the NWFP and other northern parts of the country.

The shortage was being experienced in other parts of the country and thereby causing price hike, they said. The consumers, they said, were citing two reasons for low quality of flour: the mills grind soaked wheat in order to achieve increased weight of flour; and the chaff was not being taken out of flour.

"The flour starts decomposing and emanates foul smell within three or four days and could not be consumed further," said Arman Ali, who runs a grocery shop in Islamabad. The stockists have also complained of not getting flour according to their quota.

A large number of consumers, they said, had to return empty-handed because of the unavailability of the required quantity, they said. "If you have a quota permit of 200 bags, the millers hand you over only 100 bags," said a stockist.

The millers, he said, were of the view that the government was not providing them with enough wheat that was why they were not able to provide flour to stockists as per their quota.

District Food Controller Mohammad Afzal claimed he had received complaints of substandard flour against a couple of mills a few weeks ago and had warned their owners of action after which they now supplied good quality atta. Otherwise, he asserted, the quality and supply of flour was going normal in his jurisdiction.

About fibre, he said, the Punjab government, had directed all flour mills to separate not more than 10 per cent of the fibre from the flour in order to avoid any atta shortage. The order was being followed by the millers, he claimed.

However, the people are of the opinion that a majority of the total 38 mills operating in Islamabad and Rawalpindi are providing substandard flour under the very nose of the authorities concerned.

In Rawalpindi and Islamabad, a 10-kilogram bag of flour is being sold from Rs130 to Rs140, while a 20-kg bag is being sold for Rs250 to Rs260. The consumers as well as the stockists fear that flour's prices could further go up.

In Mardan, Charsaddah, Shabqadar and Peshawar and the rural parts of NWFP, the same complaints regarding substandard flour are being received. Abdul Qahaar, a consumer from Tahtbhai, Mardan, told Dawn by phone that a 16-kilogramme flour bag was being sold at Rs280 and its quality was also not satisfactory.

The federal government, the provinces and Pakistan Agriculture Services and Storage Corporation (Pasco) possessed a total of about three million tons of wheat at present, while the total consumption of wheat across the country was about 1.9 million tons a month, he said. This is the reason why wheat shortage still persists.

Despite the imposition of 15 per cent regulatory duty on the export of wheat by the government, sources said, wheat was still being smuggled to Afghanistan where the demand for the commodity was increasing with each passing day.

Smuggling of wheat through newly-discovered routes was on its peak and hoarders and profiteers were reaping huge benefits by exporting wheat to the neighbouring country at skyrocketed rates.