WITH the Flour cri ses deepening in the country the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province remained hard hit as the Punjab stopped the supply of the commodity specially the fine flour to the KP. In meanwhile the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Minister for Information Shaukat Yousafzai has appealed to the dwellers of the province to stop eating the fine flour to tackle the issue, a suggestion people believe is not the solution to the issue. According to reports the prices of wheat flour have increased further across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa as Punjab government has stopped flour supply for the last five days. According to details, flour stock in Peshawar has left for only two days and price of 20 kg flour bag has increased by Rs 100 in one week whereas the rate of 85 kg sack has surged by Rs 400- 500. The Atta dealers claim that delivery from Punjab has been halted completely. Cashing the situation the dealers have started minting money and selling the flour to the local market at black. Resultantly, this situation has also provided opportunity to the Nanabais (Roti sellers) to exploit the situation as they have announced strike from Monday if the administration failed to meet their demand. Meanwhile, a number of Tandoor owners have already unilaterally increased the prices of various kinds of Rotis pretending hike in the prices of flour, Ghee and others items. On the other hand, KP Minister for Information Shaukat Yousafzai once again urged people to not eat fine flour. He said doctors warn that fine flour can become a cause of cancer whereas local whole-wheat flour saves from stomach diseases. The minister also questioned that why the Nanbais prefer fine flour of Punjab instead of KP. He said KP is giving subsidy on fine flour while Punjab’s fine flour is expensive. Yet majority think this is not solution to the issue. While the KP province has already witnessed flour crises many a times in the past, it was mostly due to the non-cooperation on part of the Punjab government when both KP and the Punjab used to be governed by the different political forces having hostile attitude towards each other. However, when this time both the provinces are being governed by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf that is also ruling the center, the people have questioned the non-cooperation between the two provinces. The already price hike stricken dwellers of KP have asked the Prime Minister Imran Khan to personally look into the matter and resolve the issue that appeared to be created by the forces with vested interests.
