KARACHI, Jan 7: The metropolis that has yet to overcome the shock of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto’s assassination and jolts of its follow-up devastation completely has been caught in the grip of a wheat flour crisis.
As dawn breaks consumers start making queues in front of utility stores in an effort to obtain a bag of wheat flour at the subsidised rate. Many a time the poor wait for their turn throughout the day but return bare-handed due to an acute shortage of wheat flour.
Unruly crowd and scuffles among buyers are common scenes at utility stores and various other spots where flour mills association has set up wheat flour stalls to check panic buying.
Though the flour mills association chairman is optimistic about the increase in supply of wheat flour by the end of this month with the arrival of 10 ships carrying wheat flour at Karachi Port, the closure of small chakkis after exhaustion of their wheat stock has already aggravated the situation. Small chakki owners complain that that they don’t get any quota from the food department and have to buy it from the open market where the prices have skyrocketed because of acute wheat flour shortage. Chakkiwala atta is not available at retail shops and grocery stores even at the rate of Rs26 per kilogram.
A 100-kg wheat bag, which they used to purchase until three weeks back for Rs1,700, costs Rs3,000 at present and after addition of other expenditures like power consumption, labour charges and shop rent it was impossible for them to sell the flour at Rs22 per kilogram.Some of the stores were found charging Rs26 for one kilogram of flour, but only after extraction of ‘Meda’ and ‘Suji’.
In Old Dhoraji Colony, small chakki wheat flour was available only at one of the shops at the rate of Rs35 per kg. In Gulshan-i-Iqbal, flour mills atta was being sold at Rs26 per kg.
Shopkeepers complain that they could hardly arrange a few bags of wheat flour for their customers as they were not getting supplies from the mills.
However, Flour Mills Association Chairman Iqbal Dawood was optimistic about availability of flour at the rate of Rs16 per kg within the next 72 hours. He said the association had already set up stalls in different localities to improve the situation. In the next three to four days, the flour supplies in open market would normalise, he added.
He told Dawn that the association would soon review the situation after its scheduled meeting with Food Secretary Kamran Khan.
Ban on wheat transportation
In reply to a question, he said that the main reason for shortage of wheat supply in the market was the ban imposed by the Punjab government on the transportation of wheat flour outside the province.
The ban was imposed three weeks back and since then the flour mills which made up 35 per cent supplies from the open market could not get wheat, he observed, adding that this resulted in interruption in flour supply to the retail shops.
He cited the December 27 tragedy and its follow-up disruption of the communication system for almost a week as another reason for the short supply of flour in the market.
Mr Dawood said he had appealed to the Sindh government to request the Punjab government for lifting of the ban on transportation of wheat flour so that flour prices could be brought down with immediate effect. Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ibad had gone to Islamabad where he took up the matter with the federal government, he said, adding that the governor was expected to return tonight with some ‘good news’.
He said that his association was also seeking an interview with the caretaker prime minister to request him to ask the Punjab government to lift the ban from wheat movement, as Punjab had a stock of wheat that could last till May.
Imported wheat
The association chairman disclosed that 10 ships, each carrying 65,000 tons of imported wheat, would start anchoring at Karachi Port by the end of current month or in the start of February.
He said the consignments were mainly meant to cater to the flour needs of Punjab though he would request Prime Minister Mohammedmian Soomro to direct the government of Punjab to permit Sindh to use the imported wheat in order to overcome the immediate shortfall.
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