In spite of the tall claims of the government about the abundant supply of flour across the country, the Federal Capital is still crying for the attention of the authorities to take any action against the culprits who have smuggled a huge quantity of flour to Afghanistan, well-placed sources told Business Recorder here on Saturday.
For the last 3-4 days, flour supply has been suspended in Islamabad while the authorities are behaving like silent spectators towards the whole situation. Daily wheat quota supplied to Punjab flourmills by the government is 12,000 tonnes. NWFP is being supplied 2,000 tonnes while 5,000 tonnes are being sent from Punjab to the province. The flourmills of Balochistan and Sindh are being supplied with 2,000 tonnes and 8000 tonnes respectively wheat quota daily.
According to the sources, there are 170 flourmills in Islamabad but due to high international prices of wheat as compared to Pakistan, most of the commodity is being smuggled to Afghanistan through NWFP. Source revealed that total population of Islamabad is 1.4 million, which is supplied 4000 tones of flour daily but it is wonder-struck that in the open market, flour is not available at all.
Source unveiled the fact that government is planning to raise the flour quota of Punjab flourmills from 12,000 tonnes to 14,000 tonnes in November to solve the problem. Earlier, District food controller Islamabad Afzal Ahmad told this scribe that they have called an emergency meeting of food department Islamabad where firm decision would be taken to overcome flour crises.