Balochistan sends SOS as it runs out of wheat.

QUETTA -- Despite an SOS sent by the Balochistan government a day earlier, no consignment of wheat reached the province on Sunday.

At a press conference on Saturday night, Food Minister Zamarak Khan Piralizai had said that the food department had run out of its wheat stock and called for help from other provinces and the Centre.

'We are facing a very serious crisis and need 600,000 bags of wheat on an emergency basis,' he said as he sent an SOS to the federal and provincial governments of Punjab and Sindh.

The minister, who was addressing the media after his return from Islamabad, was accompanied by Flour Mills Association president Badaruddin Kakar.

Balochistan Food Minister Zamarak Khan Piralizai addresses a press conference on Saturday. - screengrab

He said Balochistan needed immediate wheat supply to deal with the worsening situation.

The federal, Sindh and Punjab governments are responsible for this crisis, the minister said, adding that despite the promise to provide 600,000 bags of wheat by Punjab Chief Minister Pervez Elahi, not a single bag was sent to the province.

'Islamabad, Punjab and Sindh have refused to provide wheat to Balochistan,' he claimed.

Minister assails ban on inter-provincial movement of staple; Call for urgent help remains unheeded

When the private sector tried to purchase wheat from other provinces, security forces did not allow the consignment to enter Balochistan from Punjab and Sindh due to the ban on inter-provincial transportation of wheat.

He said Balochistan's annual wheat consumption is 10.52 million bags, and it needed 1.2m bags every...