By Faisal Munir
ATTOCK: The flour crisis looms large over twin cities of Taxila,
Rawalpindi and Islamabad as the flour millers have announced to
boycott the official wheat quota to register their protest against
unjust distribution of wheat to the flour millers.
A meeting of The Pakistan Flour Mills Association (PFMA) Punjab
chapter which was held on Saturday announced that the over two dozen
flour millers have unanimously decided to not to buy the official
wheat from the Punjab food department after the newly introduced
wheat quota policy by the Rawalpindi district administration.
The share of the rural population has been completely ignored in the
policy, they observed. They were of the view that the share of flour
products in grinding has been altered illogically. They further
alleges that the food department officials rather tried to create a
division among the millers “only to conceal their incompetence and
follies” and demands that Punjab Chief Minister should take notice
of the situation.
They were of the view that to accommodate the favorite flour mills of
Rawalpindi, the wheat daily quota of flour mills of twin cities of
Taxila and Wah, many of which depend on the official wheat quota for
their operations, was slashed which would affect the wheat supply in
the area. Therefore, they said, it has been decided that flour mills
will not lift the official wheat quota from Saturday which would lead
to imminent shortage of the commodity. The association warned that
they could extend the boycott to the entire province if the issue was
not resolved.
Vice Chairman PFMA Punjab chapter Atif Nadeem Mirza has claimed that
population has been made the basis for the distribution mechanism
which is against the ground realities. He was of the view that being a
stakeholder they should have been not taken into confidence in policy
formulation. He said that the PFMA had already informed the government
about the prevailing scenario and suggested possible measures to check
the increasing price of flour in the market.
