Corps commander takes notice of flour crisis

PASCO assures sending wheat in couple of days

QUETTA:

The prevailing flour crisis prompted the Corps Commander Balochistan, Lieutenant General Asif Ghafoor to take notice of the situation. The Commander contacted the national food security and PASCO with regard to the prevailing flour crisis in Balochistan.

The Commander also held a meeting with the Secretary of Food Balochistan regarding the crisis, security sources said.

The PASCO would start sending wheat to Balochistan within the next couple of days, the sources said. After the arrival of the PASCO supply, the flour crisis would end, they concluded.

The Commander took notice of the situation after the flour prices skyrocketed in Quetta and other parts of Balochistan, further compounding the problems of inflation-hit citizens.

The flour crisis worsened in Balochistan as a 20kg flour bag’s price jumped from Rs2,000 to Rs3,000 in less than a week. The flour mills association complained that the provincial food department failed to provide the required wheat quota for flour mills.

“This is the underlying reason behind the flour crisis,” Syed Farhatullah Agha, a mill owner said.

The customers faced difficulties in buying flour in Quetta and other parts of Balochistan. “We are forced to purchase flour on high prices,” Muhammad Akram, a citizen standing outside a flour mill in Quetta’s Sirki road, said. He said despite repeated appeals, the provincial government has not provided any flour in the area.

Balochistan Food Minister Zamarak Khan Achakzai also expressed helplessness with regard to the flour crisis. He lamented that the Balochistan government had demanded 200,000 bags of wheat from the Punjab government, but the latter only provided 10,000 bags.

The minister also reiterated that the provincial government was not in a position to provide flour at subsidized rates to the masses in the province. “Our treasury is empty and we have no money to pay for subsidy,” the minister said.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 10^th, 2023.