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Mahar and Jatoi discuss wheat crisis
HYDERABAD (April 30
2004): Sindh Chief Minister Sardar Ali Muhammad
Mahar held a detailed meeting with provincial Food
Minister Arif Mustafa Jatoi and food secretary on
the impending wheat crisis in the province after
President Pervez Musharraf took serious notice of
ban on the movement of the commodity by both
Punjab and Sindh.
The ban on inter-provincial movement of wheat has
negative impact on wheat price structure in Sindh
and the wheat price has started showing upward
trend making wheat procurement impossible.
The growers and the grinding units across the
province have launched protest campaigns against
the government action and demanded immediate
withdrawal of ban.
Minister of State for Food, Agriculture and
Livestock Sikandar Bosan, who has been assigned
the task to resolve the crisis, has convened a
meeting on Friday in Islamabad, which will be
attended by the provincial food ministers of all
the federating units.
The two smaller federating units, NWFP and
Balochistan, have expressed strong reservation
over the imposition of ban on wheat movement and
alleged that Sindh and Punjab have defied the
earlier federal cabinet decision and the pleas
made by the federal government.
The NWFP said, "We will not allow anyone to
violate the Constitution and those defying it
would soon get a befitting reply."
Sources said the NWFP chief minister reported to
have contacted his counterpart in Sindh to help
brought an end to the imposition of ban on
inter-provincial movement of wheat, which had
created a crisis in the Frontier province.
Sindh Food Minister Arif Mustafa Jatoi has left
for Islamabad to attend the meeting.
Jatoi told Business Recorder that he was not in
favour of imposing ban on the movement of wheat,
but the ban imposed by Punjab had forced Sindh to
restrict wheat movement to procure 0.6 million
tonnes of wheat as part of food security plan.
Following the displeasure expressed by the
president over the ban on inter-provincial wheat
movement, rumours are rife that the ban would be
lifted soon after the Friday meeting keeping in
view that the imposition of wheat not only lead to
food crisis in some parts of the country, but it
would also be detrimental to national coherence
and harmony between the federating units.
Courtesy Business Recorder
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Pakissan.com; Advisory Point
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