Centre deaf to Punjab's wheat difficulties'.

Byline: Rizwan Asif

LAHORE -- As Punjab takes measures to curb the hike in flour price, provincial government sources have complained that they are receiving no support from the centre. According to them, the federal government has offered neither monetary assistance nor the provision of wheat from stocks maintained By: the Pakistan Agricultural Storage and Services Corporation (Passco) making attempts to control flour prices in the province extremely difficult.

'For the past few years, it seems Passco dedicated solely to the wheat needs of Sindh, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan,' complained one Punjab government official. 'Punjab has never received any supply from Passco during times of difficulty even though it gets 70 per cent of its wheat from the province,' he complained.

Punjab officials said the province was asked to sell 900,000 tonnes of wheat from official stocks to flour mills in a recent meeting chaired By: Prime Minister's Finance Advisor Abdul Hafeez Sheikh.

'At the time, federal officials assured that the centre would assist Punjab in arranging the sale but in the recent Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) meeting, we were asked to release the wheat for sale immediately,' said another Punjab official privy to developments. 'No suggestions on assisting us logistically or otherwise were approved By: ECC,' he complained.

Officials said the Punjab food department currently has 4.35 million tonnes of wheat in stock. 'Releasing a limited quantity of wheat from our official stock is unlikely to bring down prices significantly,' a Punjab official said. 'On the other hand, if we start selling wheat from official stock ahead of time, it will not be possible to release government wheat till April 10 next year,' he warned.

The officials said to make matters worse, Punjab had been asked to lift a ban on inter-provincial wheat sales. 'As much as 6,000 tonnes of flour and wheat from Punjab is going to Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa daily, further increasing prices in Punjab's open markets,' an official claimed.

Another official...