Flour millers of Punjab, Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have announced to shut down their operations from Monday as a protest against the Punjab food department and district administrations raiding the mills' godowns under the pretext of anti-hoarding ordinance in Punjab and non-availability of wheat to mills in Balochistan and KP.

Pakistan Flour Mills Association (PFMA) Central Chairman Asim Raza Ahmad told Business Recorder here on Saturday that the Punjab food department had allowed the mills to keep wheat according to 72 hours grinding need but now mills don't even have wheat for 48 hours of operations. He alleged that the food department and the districts administrations are forcibly lifting grain from the flour mills' warehouses after failure in achieving the wheat procurement target of 4.5 million tonnes for the current year.

Similarly, he said KP mills are facing hardships in getting wheat from Punjab and other provinces while wheat transportation is also not being allowed to Balochistan through Naseerabad.

Asim Raza Ahmad said the department had also slapped a ban on buying wheat from the open market. He said they are in the business of flour but cannot compromise on self-respect. He said they have convened a meeting of all the millers on Sunday at the PFMA Central Secretariat in Lahore in which they will announce their detailed future strategy.