Extending its scope of the investigation into the alleged corruption in the free flour scheme, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has asked for a written account of 4.5 million bags from the mills in Punjab.
It has also sought the records from 1,100 mills of the province for the provision of free flour at Ramazan Bazaar.
NAB officials visited the head office of Pakistan Flour Mills Association (PFMA) and interrogated its officials for four hours.
The anti-graft body also issued directions to provide records including gate passes of 85 flour mills of Lahore.
PFMA Central Chairman Asim Raza and Punjab Chairman Iftkhar Ahmad Mattu gave a briefing to a three-member delegation of NAB about the provision of free flour during Ramazan.
In the briefing, the NAB delegation was told that the Lahore millers provided trucks of flour to the Punjab Food Department and the district administration at their gates.
The anti-graft body’s team was further informed that the provincial food department supplied the wheat and the mills only grinded it.
The PFMA office-bearers told the NAB team that flour trucks were handed over to the food department and district administration at the mills gates every day.
They maintained that the millers had no role in the distribution of the free flour.
The sources said the flour millers in Lahore sought more time from NAB for the provision of records.
They added that the anti-graft body gave them up till June 9 to hand over the required information.
Last month, PML-N stalwart and former premier Shahid Khaqan Abbasi alleged that corruption amounting to over Rs20 billion had occurred in the distribution of free flour -- a sum which was allocated from a budget of Rs84 billion.
Even though Abbasi did not specify that the caretaker Punjab government was involved in the corruption, caretaker provincial information minister Amir Mir termed the former premier’s allegations “false and fabricated”.
Mir said not even a single penny of corruption had taken place in the free flour scheme, and those making such claims were only denting their own reputation.
He maintained that the scheme was the most successful one in Punjab’s history, benefitting 30 million deserving people
However, a day after the federal government asked the PML-N leader to bring forth evidence of corruption, Abbasi claimed that his initial estimate of embezzled funds of Rs20 billion in the free wheat flour distribution programme was in fact undervalued.
Talking to a private news channel, Abbasi said no government was responsible for the alleged corruption but the system.
Later, NAB decided to carry out a probe into the corruption allegations in the free flour distribution programme in Punjab.
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