Millers want wheat supply to KP restored

NOWSHERA: All Pakistan Flourmills Association group leader Muhammad Nadeem Butt on Monday said that over half of the flourmills in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had been closed owing to the suspension of wheat supply and alleged illogical policy of the Punjab government.

Speaking at a press conference, he said that if the ban on the wheat supply continued, the people of KP would be compelled to buy a 20Kg bag of flour for Rs2,000 very soon. KP Flourmills Association chairman Sabir Bangash, Yousaf Afridi, vice-chairman Muhammad Arif and others were also present on the occasion.

Naeem Butt said that the Punjab government had found an excuse of smuggling of the wheat and flour to ban the supply of the staple food to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. “The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has purchased wheat at a higher price than Ukraine where waris going on and the province was compelled to lose billions of rupees,” the leader of owners of flourmills said.

He added that transporting wheat or other food items from one place to the other cannot be banned under Article 151 but the Punjab government had committed an illegal and unconstitutional act to ban the supply of wheat to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. He said that it was creating a wedge between the people of provinces, which was not good for the country and the nation.

Naeem Butt said that thousands of labourers and workers had been rendered jobless due to the closure of the flourmills in the province.He appealed to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Punjab Chief Minister Hamza Shehbaz and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Mahmood Khan to take steps for the restoration of wheat supply quota to the flourmills in KP to end the shortage of flour and black marketing of the commodity.