RAWALPINDI, Sept 4: Pakistan Flour Mills Association (PFMA) here on Wednesday asked the food department and Punjab government to fix uniform rates of flour in the country.

The demand was made in a meeting which was presided over by the secretary-general of the Pakistan Flour Mills Association, Sanaullah Durrani.

The meeting was told that separate rates in different districts would create numerous problems, including the closure of flour mills situated in the regions where wheat production is very low.

Mr Durrani told the meeting that in case this policy was implemented, it would result in an increase of about Rs20 on a 20kg flour bag in Rawalpindi region.

The secretary general of the Pakistan Flour Mills Association said such a policy could be applicable only when it was not the obligation of the food department to purchase wheat. “And all the flour mills in every Division themselves bring wheat from the wheat centres,” he added.

The meeting called upon President Gen Pervez Musharraf and the governor of the Punjab, Lt-Gen Khalid Maqbool (retired), to withdraw the decision and fix uniform rates of subsidised flour in all the districts of Punjab.