May 24, 2004
Three Pakistani Provinces Reluctant To Buy Wheat From Punjab
Pakistan's other three provinces are not interested in buying wheat from Punjab and Pakistan Agricultural Storage and Services Corporation (PASSCO) to meet their needs.
The chief ministers of Punjab, Sindh, North West Frontier Province (NWFP) and Balochistan discussed the issue with Prime Minister (PM) Zafarullah Khan Jamali at a meeting held in Islamabad recently. Sources told Daily Times on Saturday that Mr Jamali had informed the meeting that NWFP and Balochistan would get 300,000 and 30,000 metric tonnes of wheat from Punjab and Sindh respectively from PASSCO. But the three provinces did not show interest on different counts, the sources added.
They said NWFP was reluctant to buy 0.3 million metric tonnes of wheat in the next two months mainly because of its financial problems as it had to pay Rs 3 billion on wheat procurement to the Punjab government and around Rs 200 million as subsidy to flourmills.
A senior Punjab Food Department official said that Punjab Food Minister Chaudhry Iqbal had contacted his NWFP counterpart who refused to accept the offer.
The sources said when contacted by the Punjab food director, his NWFP counterpart told him that NWFP would discuss buying wheat from Punjab at the next cabinet meeting. He said if NWFP bought wheat from Punjab for around Rs 400 per maund, it would sell it to millers for around Rs 380 at a subsidised rate of Rs 20 per maund, which meant that NWFP had to pay Rs 150 to Rs 200 million as a subsidy against 300,000 metric tonnes of wheat besides paying around Rs three billion to Punjab. "So it will be a burden on the provincial exchequer."
On the other hand, he said NWFP was getting flour for the same price as was available in the Rawalpindi division in addition to the transportation costs. "Now NWFP will have to pay the cost. Punjab is promoting its flourmills after closing the mills in NWFP," he said quoting sources in the PM's meeting. NWFP Chief Minister Akram Durrani came out with the same offer. Punjab Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi offered him 300,000 metric tonnes of wheat after stopping flour supply from June 1, 2004 to which Mr Durrani agreed.
The Punjab food minister had said in a statement that NWFP seemed reluctant to procure wheat from Punjab despite the Punjab government's offer and contacts made at the official level. According to the sources, Punjab Food Secretary Shahid Raja said NWFP demanded 0.6 millions of wheat, of which Punjab offered 0.3 million metric tonnes. "But now NWFP is not willing to lift wheat from the Punjab Food Department's allocated centres."
A government official said Balochistan was not in a mood to buy 30,000 metric tonnes of wheat from Punjab. "Balochistan has always preferred buying flour from Punjab." Sindh, he added, was also not taking interest in buying wheat from PASSCO and had decided to take up the issue at a meeting to be held in Islamabad on May 26.
