Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Monday directed the authorities concerned to take necessary steps to immediately address the flour crisis in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P), which was spurred after the Punjab government restricted supplies to the province.
The prime minister's intervention came as caretaker K-P Chief Minister Azam Khan raised the matter with his Punjab counterpart Mohsin Naqvi, saying that the ban on the flour movement from Punjab could create a crisis in K-P.
Following reports of a dire flour situation in K-P, the prime minister ordered an investigation into the matter. He said that the problem of the people of K-P "is our problem" too.
Meanwhile, in a letter to Chief Minister Naqvi, Azam Khan stated that the Punjab Food Department had established check posts at the K-P entry points and the transportation of wheat and flour from Punjab was not being allowed at these check posts.
Due to this restriction, the K-P chief minister said, flour prices were increasing in K-P and that there were fears of a shortage of flour and wheat in the open market of the province. As a result, law and order problems might arise in the province, Khan warned.
The K-P chief minister pointed out that at the check posts the Punjab Food Department officials were not even allowing the wheat purchased from the Pakistan Agricultural Storage and Services Corporation (Passco).
"There is an impression that these actions of the Punjab Food Department are against the spirit of Article 151 of the Constitution," Azam Khan said in the letter, while referring to the constitutional provision that prohibits restrictions on the free movement of food items.
"Civil society and flour mills association of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa are protesting at this issue," he added. He asked the chief minister to order the provincial Food Department to abolish the check posts and allow free transportation of wheat and flour.
Last week, the K-P chapter of the Pakistan Flour Mills Association (PFMA) said that a ban on the transportation of wheat from Punjab to other provinces had forced the closure of 70% of flour industry in the province.
Addressing a press conference, the PFMA's K-P chief, Muhammad Iqbal, had said that the ban on wheat movement was unconstitutional under Article 151 of the Constitution.
He added that the prime minister and chief ministers of Punjab and K-P should take notice of the issue and order the removal of all the check posts set up by the Punjab government.
He said that because of the ban on the transportation of wheat to other provinces, the people were forced to purchase flour at the rate of Rs3,000 to 4,000 per 20-kilogram bag.
He had urged the prime minister to announce a special relief package for provincial flour mills so that the unemployed laborers could get back to their jobs.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 9th, 2023.
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