May 09, 2008	Friday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 3, 1429

PESHAWAR, May 8: Police on Thursday seized from various areas 37,988 bags of flour meant to be smuggled to other districts of the province and to Afghanistan.

A police spokesman said 242 cases were registered against suspected flour smugglers and 308 people were arrested.

He said a majority of the cases were registered against those trying to smuggle flour to Afghanistan. Some were booked for violating section 144 by transporting flour to other districts.

Meanwhile, Sarhad Chamber of Commerce and Industry president Mohammad Asif on Thursday expressed concern over the ban on supply of wheat and flour from Punjab to the NWFP and termed it in total violation of the country’s Constitution.

Owing to the ban on transportation of wheat, he said that many flour mills were close to be shut, as these were the few months for them, in which they were supposed to purchase wheat and then supply flour to the consumers round the year.

The supply of wheat to the millers, the SCCI chief said was next to nil and it was impossible for them to meet the target in such a situation.

He said that the people in the province were being faced with serious problems and the government was duty bound to take effective steps for providing relief to the masses.

Mr Asif demanded of the NWFP governor and the chief minister to take up the issue with the federal government to overcome the crisis.

KOHAT: An attempt to smuggle 268 bags of flour from Kohat to the Orakzai Agency was foiled by the Ustarzai police and two persons were arrested along with their trucks on the Parachinar road on Wednesday night.

Police said the trucks were carrying flour to the Ghiljo area in the Orakzai Agency. Police seized 148 bags of 20 kilograms, 38 bags of 80kg and 40 bags of 40kg and arrested Akhtar Khan and Gul Taa Khan, residents of the Orakzai Agency.

A case was registered against the accused.

TIMERGARA: Flourmill owners in Lower Dir have demanded lifting the ban on inter-provincial movement of wheat, saying mills in the district had been closed for the last few days due to shortage of wheat.

Talking to journalists here on Thursday, they said: “The government used to provide us with 296 bags of wheat on daily basis but on May 5 we were provided 148 bags. For the last three days we have not receive a single bag and mills have stopped grinding.”

They said that due to the ban on inter-provincial wheat and flour movement they were not allowed to purchase wheat from the open market in Punjab.

They called upon federal and provincial governments to left the ban on wheat movement so that they could buy wheat from the open market.

Flour dealers in the district confirmed that they had not received flour from mills for three days and there was an acute shortage of the commodity in the market. They said they had some stock purchased from the open market, but if the situation persisted the crisis would deepen.

Talking to Dawn on Wednesday, District Coordination Officer Suhail Khan said the provincial government had been contacted and it had promised to supply wheat to the district in a couple of days.

LANDI KOTAL: Political authorities of the Jamrud tehsil of the Khyber Agency seized 3,000 flour bags of 20kg and 180 wheat bags of 100kg from trucks carrying refugee families back to Afghanistan, officials said on Thursday.