Flour millers from Punjab have refused to lift what they said substandard wheat being released from the government godowns across the province. Pakistan Flour Mills Association (PFMA) Chairman Riaz Ullah Khan claimed this in a statement issued on Thursday.
He alleged that all the provincial wheat godowns were releasing substandard wheat to the flour mills and the staff deputed on these godowns was trying to compel and force flour millers to lift this wheat. Nevertheless, flour millers were up against this attitude of the department and not ready to lift the single grain of substandard wheat, he added.
PFMA group leader Asim Raza Ahmad claimed that they were receiving these sorts of complaints from millers from all the small and big cities including Rawalpindi, Sargodha, Chiniot, Faisalabad and Mughalpura (Lahore). He said the millers were complaining that three-year old stock was being released but millers were not picking it up in the larger interest of the masses and hygiene.
He said the old stocks were not being disposed off because of faulty policies of the government due to which the Punjab food department was carrying forward 2.5 million tons of stocks. The PFMA urged the secretary food Punjab to immediately suspend those officials deputed on these godowns and forced the millers to lift substandard grain to avoid any loss in future.
Some other flour millers including Mian Riaz, Mian Liaquat Ali and Iftikhar Mattoo in a separate statement made it clear that the members of the PFMA would not lift substandard grain in any case and would come up to their commitment of providing quality flour to the public in line with the hygiene principles.