RAWALPINDI, May 16: The twin cities are inching towards a major wheat flour crisis as all the millers have refused to accept the permits being issued by the food department on the plea that hindrances were being created for them in buying the grain from wheat growing districts of the province.

The Wheat Flour Mills Association has announced to shut down all units for an indefinite period from Saturday to mark its protest against the policy adopted by the Punjab food department.

The strike will continue if the department continued to use its modus operandi and prevented flour mills from buying wheat.

“It (the department) should seal the borders and set up check posts in NWFP instead of within Punjab if it is determined to check the smuggling of wheat to Afghanistan”, owner of one of the oldest flour mills in Rawalpindi told Dawn on Friday.

Deputy Food Controller Saqib Mannan showed his concern about the shortage of wheat flour in case the flour mills went on strike.

Mr Mannan confirmed that the flour mill owners had stopped taking wheat permits from today (Friday). He said Rawalpindi division, already a wheat deficient area, was facing a shortage of 400,000 tons of wheat per year. Against its requirement of 600,000 tons, it was producing only 200,000 tons.

Flour mills have been allowed to purchase wheat from other districts to meet their demands.

On the other hand, Mian Mohammad Iqbal, owner of a mill, said the permits issued by the food department were of no use as the department, police and other agencies were allegedly harassing and creating obstructions in inter-district movement of wheat even against the permits.

The food department officials were also not allowing mill owners to buy wheat from farmers to achieve the target of wheat procurement by the government, he said.

The Punjab government has enhanced its wheat procurement target from two million tons to three million tons, and it is evident from the prevailing situation that the procurement target may exceed five million tons.

Only a few days ago, Punjab Food Minister Malik Nadeem Kamran had reviewed the brewing wheat crisis in the twin cities and had directed the food department to enhance the quota of mill owners.

In contrast, mill owner Mian Iqbal said his mill had received only 400 bags of wheat against the requirement of 4,000 to 5,000 bags.

Mr Iqbal asserted that the government’s decision to import 2.5 million tons of wheat would backfire as the requirement was quite high.

He said smuggling of wheat to Afghanistan would never be checked. The government would have to draw a plan to meet wheat shortage in Afghanistan, otherwise the smuggling would never be stopped, he added.

In the meantime, the food department officials on Friday gave a briefing to the chairman of Chief Minister’s Inspection Team, Major (retired) Tariq Mazari, on the wheat requirement of the Rawalpindi division.

Informed sources told Dawn that there was no outcome of the meeting as Mr Mazari made no commitment on behalf of the Punjab government.

However, he directed the city district government to adopt stringent measures to check price hike, black marketing, hoarding and shortage of essential daily-use items.

He said raids should be conducted on regular basis to control prices and ensure smooth supply.