Flour mills re-open across Pakistan after negotiations

All Pakistan Flour Mills Association (APFMA) ended its five-day strike on Monday and announced resumption of work, after the conclusion of  successful talks with the Federal Minister for Food and Agriculture, Nazar Mohammad Gondal.

Addressing the media in Islamabad Gondal said that the government has agreed ‘in-principle’ to allow export of wheat to Afghanistan.

He said that the approval of the Cabinet’s Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) will be sought to increase the quota for wheat export, given the surplus harvest.

Chairman APFMA, Iqbal Daud, told The Express Tribune that the federal government has pledged that inter-provincial transport of flour will be restored within four to five days.

He said “Prime Minister Gilani will be in Karachi on Tuesday and we have been assured that the issue will be brought up with Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah in the presence of the prime minister.”

The mill owners asserted that they have also been given assurances that political agents in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Frontier Corps personnel in Balochistan will be instructed through the provinces’ governor and Interior Minister Rehman Malik respectively to refrain from harassing flour transporters.

Mill owners had been observing a country-wide strike against restrictions on inter-provincial movement of flour, blocking export shipments to Afghanistan. The closure of flour mills threatened to create a shortage of the staple food item, despite a bumper harvest of wheat in the country.

Meanwhile, APFMA also came under pressure, particularly from flour millers in Sindh. Some mills had already resumed production, prior to talks with the government started. However, APFMA officials insist that 1,060 flour mills across the country have completely supported the strike call.

Iqbal Daud expressed hope that “the government will fulfill its commitments.” He added “we are not in favour of cutting production but we were forced to go on strike because our grievances were not being addressed.”

When asked about the availability of flour during Ramazan, Daud assured, “now that production has resumed, we should be able to meet any surge in demand.”

Published in The Express Tribune, July 13^th, 2010.