LAHORE: The battle lines between the Pakistan Flour Mills Association (PFMA) and the Punjab government got blurred on Saturday as more than 75 per cent of mills received their allotted quota and promised to keep their business as usual even after Monday.

The association had threatened to go on strike from Monday (tomorrow) if the Punjab government included flour in the category of essential items, which meant that the defaulting miller would not only be liable to return subsidy amount (only Lahore millers are getting over Rs300 million a day subsidy) but also face criminal proceedings.

Encouraged by millers’ response on Saturday, the Punjab government not only stood its ground but also announced that the quota of the striking mills, if any, would be diverted to non-striking ones. “The provincial requirement could easily be met this way and smooth supply would be ensured,” says an official spokesman for the department.

The association maintains that putting flour in the category would also mean that trade outside a designated periphery (district or province) would be restricted to 25 maunds and anyone violating it would not only have his commodity confiscated, return subsidy money and also face criminal charges. “This is unacceptable to the association,” said Iftikhar Muttoo, chairman of the association, on Friday, while delivering the strike threat from Feb 13.

In response to PFMA threat, govt plans to divert striking mills’ share to non-striking ones

He also demanded that the government end restriction on flour movement and abolish “sale tracking system” so that millers do not go on strike.

In a release on Saturday, Mr Muttoo has sought the intervention of the Punjab chief minister for solution to their issues. He said the millers had always played a positive role for the welfare of the people.

Apparently, the potential inclusion of criminal content for violators of the governmental Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) irked the association. However, the dissenting millers had a different explanation to offer: “With the arrival of new secretary (food), who had a history of locking horns with sugar millers as the provincial cane commissioner; introducing new laws to regulate trade and increasing penalties for defaulters, sprang into action with first few days.

He asked the department officials about their ‘no-go’ areas – mills of influential people involved in selling of official quota and making a windfall. He got a list, verified it through field staff and raided all those mills, checked their record and sealed those found involved in quota rigging. In the process, some big toes – association leaders and politically influential – were trampled.

The association quickly moved behind them and threatened to go on strike due to the same reason. Since, the entire dispute was personal, most of the millers did not go with it and the lifting of quota on Saturday by a majority only reflected the same fact,“ explained one of the association insiders – a story corroborated by the departmental officials.

None of them, however, was ready to come on record for the politically and socially sensitive nature of the issue.

Majid Abdullah, one of the dissenting millers, who along with other few officially declared not to be part of the strike threat, says that strike flies in the face of business logic as well. “Currently, open market is almost dry. Whatever wheat is left in the market is being traded at Rs4,500 per maund. Compare it with official rate of Rs2,300 per maund. How can millers be asked to buy wheat from the market as almost double the official price, punish their buyers and shrink their market share. This is precisely why no one wants to drop official quota because the only other option is shut the operation and suffer huge losses in the shape of fixed charges.

“There is so much of over-installed capacity in grinding that even 30pc of the mills could meet the provincial flour requirements. All millers know it and are to run their business rather than get involved in personal fights,” he claims.

Published in Dawn, February 12th, 2023