Lahore : Pakistan Flour Mills Association (PFMA) Chairman, Naeem Butt, has held Punjab Food Department responsible for worsening wheat crisis and demanded of the government to permit private sector to import wheat to meet local demand of flour for the remaining five months before the local crop harvesting season begins in the country. Mr Naeem Butt who has taken over as PFMA chairman recently vehemently criticised the wheat policy of the Punjab government in his statement and said “ PFMA was time and again informing the government that there will be acute shortage of wheat in the country in 2026 due to short production and it could subsequently ignite a severe wheat and flour crisis. but the decision-makers in the Punjab remained unmoved and today when local wheat crop harvesting is still five months away Pakistan is in the grip of an unprecedented wheat flour crisis.”
A couple of days ago, PFMA outgoing chairman, Mr Badaruddin Kakar , had also lamented the policy of the Punjab government and held its Food Department responsible of wheat crisis in the country. He had repeated mentioned name of former DG Punjab government Amjad Hafeez, in his speech and held him responsible for wheat and flour crisis in the country. He had told annual general meeting (AGM) that Amjad Hafeez as DG Punjab Department disgraced flour millers and he had followed the policy of pick and choose for issuing wheat quota to the mills of his choice.
After Mr Badaruddin Kakar his successor and sitting chairman PFMA, Naeem Butt, who hails from Kyber Pukhtunkhaw, has levelled serious allegations against the Punjab Food Department. He claimed that the Punjab Food Department in Amjad Hafeez’s tenure gave incorrect production figures of wheat and misled the federal government that subsequently has pushed Pakistan into serious wheat flour crisis. According to Mr Naeem Butt, PFMA had been opposing what he termed as anti- people and anti- state wheat policy of the Punjab government being practised for the last two years. He reiterated PFMA stance on wheat import and said “ Flour industry believes the Punjab government’s decision to ban wheat transportation from the province to other provinces played a havoc in the country and pushed the whole Pakistan and its 250 million people into an unending wheat flour crisis.
The flour industry is leveling serious corruption charges against the Punjab Food Department when Amjad Haffeez was its in-charge. Many regional associations of the flour industries have raised the case of corrupt practices of the Punjab Food Department through SoS during the last six months, but all these calls for probe into the issue of wheat issue against the merit to certain mills on the orders of Amjad Hafeez remained unnoticed by the Punjab and federal government. The flour millers have been accusing corruption of billions of rupee in the issuance of wheat quota to some selected mills and flour permits during the last two years.
PFMA chairman Mr Naeem Butt, who comes from KP, is questioning as to how the mills in KP got wheat and flour from the Punjab when it had imposed ban on their transportation to KP and other deficient provinces. He wants answer to transportation of wheat to certain mills in KP and Balochistan during the ban period. He is speaking on the facts base when he claims that the people of his province ((KP) have been paying double price of flour to the rates in the Punjab.
Its generally believed that wheat flour smuggling to KP and Balochistan during wheat transportation ban involved corruption of six to eight billions. Mr Naeem Butt is asking the same question and demanding answer to a question that why there is no probe of allegations of corruption of billions of rupee through wheat quota releases and flour permits granted by the Punjab Food Department during the last two years.
The government , if gives some preference to national interest , should listen to PFMA’s repeated allegations against the Punjab Food Department and order impartial inquiry into the issue. The Federal government should also pay attention to Mr Naeem Butt’s accusation that the Punjab Food Department gave wrong wheat production figures in May last to mislead the federal government and use the potential flour crisis to make unlawful monetary gains.
It may be noted that Punjab Chief Minister , Maryam Nawaz, had officially decaled that her province had achieved a bumper wheat production in 2026 and within two months wheat and flour crisis had emerged in the country. The federal government should have questioned the Punjab government over wheat and flour crisis when it had claimed of having bumper wheat crop only a couple of months ago (May 2026).
Instead questioning the Punjab government over incorrect wheat production figures , the federal government opted to import one million tons of wheat which will cost the poor of this country around $ 1.2 billion. The federal government is also brushing the issue of importing sub-standards wheat in 2023. These are painful facts which need impartial investigations in the national interest.