Food supply: Punjab can’t ban wheat supply like this, states SC

Top court asks provincial govt to submit reply, take permissible steps.

ISLAMABAD:

Taking notice of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa’s plea against Punjab blocking the province’s wheat supply on Tuesday, the Supreme Court asked the Punjab government to take steps permissible under the law. It also asked the provincial government to submit its reply in the next hearing.

A three-judge bench of the apex court, headed by Justice Jawwad S Khawaja, pointed out that this was not a way to impose a ban over the supply of wheat to other provinces.  It also observed that if the five executives could not provide basic food to the citizens of the country then it should exclude Articles 9, 14 and 38 from the Constitution.

Meanwhile, Advocate General Punjab Mustafa Ramday assured the bench that he would try to resolve this issue as soon as possible.

A day earlier, the K-P government had requested the top court to issue an appropriate order to all provinces, especially Punjab, to allow and not create any hindrance in procuring and transporting wheat for its province.

The application submitted through K-P Advocate General Latif Yousafzai says the Punjab government imposed unannounced restrictions in regard to the movement of wheat. “These restrictions are blocking the flow of wheat to the province. This is causing an increase in its price when all experts claim to have a bumper wheat crop this year,” submitted Yousafzai.

The K-P government requested the top court to issue an appropriate order to all provinces to avoid creating any hindrances in the procurement of wheat for its province.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 21^st, 2014.