Pakistan’s Flour Crisis Deepens Amid Allegations of Preferential Wheat Allocations and Market Manipulation
Pakistan’s Flour Crisis Deepens Amid Allegations of Preferential Wheat Allocations and Market Manipulation
By Raja Mohsin Ijaz
ISLAMABAD —Pakistan is confronting an escalating flour crisis that has exposed deep-rooted distortions within the country’s wheat distribution system. What began as a supply management challenge has evolved into a full-blown governance scandal, implicating senior officials and private mill operators in what observers describe as “institutionalized profiteering.”
Insiders within the food sector say that a handful of flour mills, primarily based in Lahore and Islamabad, have been granted preferential access to government wheat reserves, bypassing equitable distribution mechanisms established by PASSCO and provincial food departments.
While officials publicly deny wrongdoing, several individuals familiar with the process describe a pattern of “selective favoritism” , in some cases allegedly tied to financial inducements that may have been routed through offshore or foreign transactions. No formal inquiry has yet confirmed these allegations, but the claims have added to a growing sense of mistrust surrounding the management of the nation’s most essential staple.
Despite acquiring wheat at Rs. 1,800 per maund, some private mills are reportedly selling flour at rates that reflect a notional wheat cost exceeding Rs. 4,000 per maund, effectively doubling their margins. Consumers, meanwhile, face record-breaking prices: in Islamabad, a 20-kilogram bag of flour now sells for Rs. 2,400, while a sack of fine flour has crossed Rs. 10,000 — a level unimaginable just months ago.
Officials at both the federal and provincial levels have been accused of enabling this situation by continuing to supply subsidized wheat to mills already holding vast private stocks, sometimes running into hundreds of thousands of bags. The practice, analysts argue, has distorted the market, rewarding hoarding and punishing transparency.
Equally troubling are reports suggesting that high-ranking bureaucrats within the food departments are exploiting transfers and postings as instruments of personal gain. “The system has collapsed from within,” said one senior industry insider, requesting anonymity for fear of reprisal. “The very officials meant to regulate wheat distribution are now complicit in its manipulation.”
Under departmental regulations, wheat stocks held by mills for more than 72 hours are meant to be seized to prevent hoarding. Yet enforcement remains nonexistent; instead, many of the same mills reportedly receive additional government allocations.
Experts warn that without urgent corrective measures — including transparent audits and population-based wheat distribution — Pakistan’s decades-old food security framework may continue to erode, leaving the poor and middle class at the mercy of artificial shortages and speculative pricing.
Repeated attempts to contact the Distric Food Department for comment remained unsuccessful.
