No hoarding of wheat by mills acceptable: FFC
By Adnan Rafique

ISLAMABAD—The Federal Food Committee (FFC) here on Wednesday reiterated the government’s resolve not to allow hoarding of wheat by mills and impose penalties against the violators.
“We will not allow hoarding of wheat or flour by the mills and confiscate the undeclared quantity besides imposing penalties on them”, Lt. Gen.(R) Farooq Ahmed Khan, Chairman Federal Food Committee(FFC) and National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) said while presiding over a meeting of the committee here at Prime Minister Secretariat this morning.
The meeting took notice of the reports that wheat is lying in some mills in Balochistan for the past five years. The Chairman directed the relevant authorities to thoroughly check the stock position of undeclared wheat in the mills and present a comprehensive report in this regard to FFC.
He also directed the relevant authorities to penalize the mills involved in hoarding.
He added that government would continue supply of wheat to mills from its quota but it is also responsibility of the millers to make judicious use of wheat and not to hoard the wheat and grind the wheat and market it for relief of the general public. The meeting expressed satisfaction over the overall supply and price situation of wheat and flour in the country.
It also observed that due to effective steps taken by the government through the committee the prices of flour have started declining and further going down constantly.
Lt Gen (R) Farooq Ahmed Khan also directed the representatives of Pakistan Railways and Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP) to expedite the supply of wheat from ports to other parts of the country in order to ensure availability of enough quantity of wheat in the country.
On a complaint that wheat is being smuggled on donkeys from Mehmand Agency, he directed the FC and police to enhance manning at the checkposts and strictly monitor the situation and deploy extra personnel at the post to check smuggling of wheat on the borders.
He said a meeting with the representatives of World Food Programme (WFP) and ICRC be arranged to know about quantity and their beneficiaries of wheat from Pakistan.
The Chairman FFC said that there would be no compromise on the standard of flour and asked the mills to ensure the quality of flour to the consumers.
He said that samples of wheat including imported wheat and flour produced by the mills would be sent to the laboratories so that no injustice be done to the mills in measuring the moisture contents of the flour.
He added that government would continue supply of wheat to mills from its quota but it is also responsibility of the millers to make judicious use of wheat and not to hoard the wheat and grind the wheat and market it for relief of the general public.
The meeting took notice of the reports that wheat is lying in some mills in Balochistan for the past five years.