Growers allege wheat smuggling by officials, traders.

DADU -- Corrupt officials of food department and local traders are smuggling wheat unchecked to other parts of the country and Afghanistan from Dadu, Jamshoro and other districts of Sindh, causing a shortage of the commodity and subsequent rise in its price in local markets, according to growers.

They warned if the smuggling was not stopped immediately, it would further deepen the wheat crisis. Influential traders had set up camps in Jhaloo, Moundar, Keti Jatoi, Shah Panjo, Nau Dero, Purano Dero, Sita Road, Khairpur Nathan Shah, Phulji Station, Radhan, Thariri Mohabbat, Nau Goth, Mehar, Wahi Pandhi and Haji Khan areas in Dadu district to buy wheat from growers in order to smuggle it to Afghanistan via Balochistan and Karachi, they said.

'Food officials have not provided gunny bags to growers but they are purchasing wheat from them through local traders,' said Ali Khan Jatoi, a grower in Jhaloo area.

'Food officials in connivance with local traders have started smuggling wheat towards Afghanistan and big towns of the country to make windfall profits,' said Shahid Ali Siyal, a grower.

Say the crisis will deepen if immediate steps not taken to check the menace

'About 100 to 150 trucks loaded with the grain are daily being smuggled towards big cities of the country and Afghanistan through different routes. Rs100,000 Rs150,000 bribe has been fixed by food officials and local police as a price to look the other way when the trucks pass by check-posts on Indus Highway,' he said.

He said the gunny bags were only provided to influential traders linked to Pakistan Peoples Party leaders while small growers were neglected. There was massive corruption in the grain's purchase and all corrupt officials had been appointed to key posts in food department, complained Ali Mohammad Khushik, a grower in Moundar riverine...