The flour mills owners of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have announced to shut the mills from today (Monday) over lack of proper wheat supply.
The announcement was made by Pakistan Flour Mills Association (PFMA) KP chapter on Sunday. The Association said the mills will remain closed indefinitely from today (Monday) in protest against lack of wheat supply for the last several months. It said the provincial government was informed about the issue several times, but it, instead of resolving the problem, kept on insisting that the wheat supply is sufficient and there will be now shortage, but now the crisis has come eventually
According to PFMA, the provincial government had earlier supplied 5,000 tonnes to mills, while 5,000 tonnes wheat was provided by the Punjab government that was enough to fulfil the market demand. As Punjab has completely stopped the supply, the KP’s food department has too reduced the supply of grain to mills to just 3,000 tonnes.
PFMA KP Chairman Haji Iqbal Khan told that due to lack of interest of the provincial food department and the KP government to raise the issue with the federal and Punjab governments, people of the province are going to face another flour crisis, while the millers are already facing huge losses.
The millers appealed to Chief Minister Punjab as well as Provincial Minister for Food to take stock of the plight of flour millers as anti-mills steps would lead to adding to the miseries of the common man already hit hard by inflation and price hike.
