PESHAWAR, Jan 22: The Peshawar High Court on Thursday dropped contempt of court charges against the district coordination officer (DCO) of Dera Ismail Khan in the case of flour crisis after he tendered an unconditional apology.

A two-member bench comprising Justice Dost Muhammad Khan and Justice Jehanzeb Raheem directed the DCOs of different districts and officials of food department to take further steps for tackling the flour crisis. The bench fixed Feb 19 for next hearing with the direction to the officials to present updated reports about the situation of wheat and flour in the province.

The court was hearing the issue of flour and wheat crisis in the province of which it had taken suo motu notice in Oct last. During last hearing in December the court had issued contempt of court notice to the D.I. Khan DCO for violation of the court order regarding issuance of transportation permits. The court had given guidelines for the issuance of the permits which was violated by the said DCO.

The DCO, Mohsin Ali Shah, submitted a written apology and report to the bench on Thursday. He stated that he had issued the said permits in ignorance and he never intended to flout the court order.

The bench dropped the charges against him with the direction to remain careful in future. The director food, Muhammad Rasheed Khan, and other officials of home, food and agriculture department appeared and informed the court about the steps they had taken in line with the directives of the court. The DCOs of Tank, D.I. Khan and Swabi their respective reports and informed the court about the situation of flour availability in their districts.

The court was also hearing a writ petition of Pakistan Flour Mills Association, NWFP chapter, which had challenged ban on inter-provincial movement of wheat. The court had summoned concerned police officers, high-ranking officials of the provincial government including food, home and local government departments. During various hearings the court had issued various directives and guidelines to the officials for streamlining the sale of flour in the province.

The officials informed the court that after the issue was taken up by the high court the crisis had been overcome to a great extent and the commodity was easily available in all the districts.—Bureau Report