PESHAWAR: Mills in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) shut operations on Monday and their owners are warning that a flour crisis is looming, as grain supplies from Punjab have stopped.
“Punjab has totally banned wheat supplies to KP. The provincial food department has slashed wheat supply to only 3,000 tons daily ... It will trigger a flour crisis,” Muhammad Iqbal, chairman of the KP chapter of Pakistan Flour Mills Association (PFMA), told Arab News on Monday.
He added that in accordance with earlier interprovincial deals, Punjab should supply 12,000 tons of wheat a day to KP, which means that the province is now facing a daily shortage of 9,000 tons.
According to Punjab authorities, however, the suspension is only temporary as the province is now struggling to meet its target of 4.5 million tons, but will get back on the track in the coming days.
“The Punjab food authority has so far procured 3.8 million tons of wheat and the rest will be procured in a few days. We’ve already directed all flour mills not to keep wheat stock for more than three days. The completion of the procurement process by the government of Punjab will set the process of wheat supply in motion to other provinces, including KP, in the next three or four days,” Punjab government spokeswoman Musarrat Cheema told Arab News on Monday evening.
Meanwhile, KP mills say the situation is already affecting their operations and the livelihoods of thousands of their workers. He alleged that the government is failing to notice the issue.
“At least 120 laborers work in one flour mill and each person has a seven-member family at home. It means that mills closure leaves around 200,000 individuals affected directly,” Iqbal said, adding that 180 out of the province’s 220 mills are now shut.
“We have spent billions of rupees on flour mills and are paying millions in taxes, but in return we are pushed into a blind street,” Iqbal said.
His warnings that a flour crisis is looming have been downplayed by KP Food Secretary Nisar Ahmed, who said that everything will soon get back to normal since the harvest season has already started and Punjab’s wheat procurement is ongoing.
“How can you expect a wheat crisis at a time when wheat harvest season is underway in parts of the country? We will have a surplus stock after crops harvesting,” he said, “It is like creating unsubstantiated rumors about wheat crisis. There is no ban on wheat supply.”
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa faces flour shortage as mills shut down
https://arab.news/725pg
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa faces flour shortage as mills shut down
- Mills say the situation is already affecting the livelihoods of thousands of their workers
- Punjab government says grain supplies to KP will resume in coming days
Tens of thousands flee northwest Pakistan over fears of military operation
- More than 70,000 people, mostly women and children, have fled remote Tirah region bordering Afghanistan
- Government says no military operation underway or planned in Tirah, a town in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province
BARA, Pakistan: More than 70,000 people, mostly women and children, have fled a remote region in northwestern Pakistan bordering Afghanistan over uncertainty of a military operation against the Pakistani Taliban, residents and officials said Tuesday.
Pakistan’s Defense Minister Khawaja Mohammad Asif has denied the claim by residents and provincial authorities. He said no military operation was underway or planned in Tirah, a town in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
Speaking at a news conference in Islamabad, he said harsh weather, rather than military action, was driving the migration. His comments came weeks after residents started fleeing Tirah over fears of a possible army operation.
The exodus began a month after mosque loudspeakers urged residents to leave Tirah by Jan. 23 to avoid potential fighting. Last August, Pakistan launched a military operation against Pakistani Taliban in the Bajau r district in the northwest, displacing hundreds of thousands of people.
Shafi Jan, a spokesman for the provincial government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, posted on X that he held the federal government responsible for the ordeal of the displaced people, saying authorities in Islamabad were retracting their earlier position about the military operation.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Suhail Afridi, whose party is led by imprisoned former Prime Minister Imran Khan, has criticized the military and said his government will not allow troops to launch a full-scale operation in Tirah.
The military says it will continue intelligence-based operations against Pakistani Taliban, who are known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP. Though a separate group, it has been emboldened since the Afghan
Taliban returned to power in 2021. Authorities say many TTP leaders and fighters have found sanctuary in Afghanistan and that hundreds of them have crossed into Tirah, often using residents as human shields when militant hideouts are raided.
Caught in the middle are the residents of Tirah, who continued arriving in Bara.
So far, local authorities have registered roughly 10,000 families — about 70,000 people — from Tirah, which has a population of around 150,000, said Talha Rafiq Alam, a local government administrator overseeing the relief effort. He said the registration deadline, originally set for Jan. 23, has been extended to Feb. 5.
He said the displaced would be able to return once the law-and-order situation improves.
Among those arriving in Bara and nearby towns was 35-year-old Zar Badshah, who said he left with his wife and four children after the authorities ordered an evacuation. He said mortar shells had exploded in villages in recent weeks, killing a woman and wounding four children in his village. “Community elders told us to leave. They instructed us to evacuate to safer places,” he said.
At a government school in Bara, hundreds of displaced lined up outside registration centers, waiting to be enrolled to receive government assistance. Many complained the process was slow.
Narendra Singh, 27, said members of the minority Sikh community also fled Tirah after food shortages worsened, exacerbated by heavy snowfall and uncertain security.
“There was a severe shortage of food items in Tirah, and that forced us to leave,” he said.
Tirah gained national attention in September, after an explosion at a compound allegedly used to store bomb-making materials killed at least 24 people. Authorities said most of the dead were militants linked to the TTP, though local leaders disputed that account, saying civilians, including women and children, were among the dead.
