Supply of 700 tonnes of flour to K-P ‘blocked’

District Food Controller says vehicles stopped on instructions of chief secretary

LAHORE:

The District Food Controller of Bhakkar allegedly stopped trucks loaded with flour worth millions of rupees going from Punjab to Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) at the interprovincial checkpoint at Dajal.

Despite the fact that there is no ban on transportation of flour from Punjab to the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, the truckers are being held up at the interprovincial border for the last more than 96 hours.

Trucks loaded with more than 700 tons of flour from the mills of different cities of Punjab which were taking flour to different cities of K-P were stopped by the district in charge of the food department at the interprovincial checkpoint in Dajal between Punjab and K-P.

If the vehicles are not allowed to carry flour to K-P, there is a serious danger of flour crisis on Eidul Fitr. “Transporters are in dire straits in the heat in the open air during fasting while flour worth millions of rupees is rotting,” said one of the transporters.

Read  PM directs Punjab govt to provide 0.2m MT wheat to K-P

When The Express Tribune contacted the District Food Controller of Bhakkar, Mudassir Javed, regarding stopping supply of flour to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa without any notification, he said that the vehicles loaded with flour had been stopped on the instructions of the chief secretary of Punjab and the district administration.

So far no order had been received from the top officials regarding these vehicles.

“We will decide according to the instructions received from the higher authorities,” he said. Transporters Sajid Khan, Noman Saleem and Muhammad Bilal said that long queues of trucks were at the main checkpoint connecting Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab.

District Food Controller Mudassir Javed had stopped dozens of trucks loaded with flour without any ban. President of Bhakkar Flour Mills Association Malik Waqar Khokhar while talking to The Express Tribune said that Prime Minister Mian Shehbaz Sharif stated the other day that no ban had been imposed on supply of flour.

Nevertheless, trucks have been stopped despite PM's announcement.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, April 30^th, 2022.