PESHAWAR:All political and religious parties and civil society organizations here on Saturday held a walk and pubic meeting in Ataliq Square Chitral against the sudden increase in the wheat price and demanded the provincial as well as the federal governments to take immediate action otherwise they would announce a complete shutter down strike.
This protest agitation and public meeting was held on the call of all parties which was presided over by Ameer Jamaat-e-Islami Maulvi Jamshed. On this occasion, the protestors walked in Ataliq Bazar which was later transformed int a huge rally.
Representatives of all political and religious parties, traders union, drivers’ union, representatives of civil society and a large number of people also participated in the protest. On this occasion there was a complete shutter down strike in Chitral Bazar.
Addressing the protest, the speakers said that the people of Chitral are also Pakistanis and were very peaceful citizens, but the government adopted discriminatory attitude. They said that the previous provincial government issued a notification and allowed non-locals to open flour mills by closing all the water mills across the district.
They said that from these flour mills, very poor and substandard quality flour was being provided to the people which was not good for human health, while the supply of wheat at subsidize rates to the people had been banned.
They said that the people had also tolerated this but now during the interim government, the price of wheat was increased by 100 percent and instead of 6,000, a bag of 100 kg of wheat was now available for 12,000 rupees, while the same wheat was available for only 4,000 rupees in Gilgit-Baltistan.
The protesters demanded of banning these flour mills, besides taking action against those selling substandard flour in the market.
They also demanded that all the flour mills in Chitral should be closed and wheat should be supplied to the people from the sale point under the old system so that these people can buy it of their own free will.
According to the government policy, the Mills operating in Chitral will sell 70 percent of the flour to the public at a cheap rate, while it is bound to sell 30 percent of the flour at its own discretion. They said that the subsidized flour sold to the public is not even edible and often the Mill owners smuggle the flour from here to other districts.
A unanimous resolution was also passed in the protest meeting, in which it was demanded that the sudden increase in the price of wheat by Rs. 6,000 per bag is not acceptable. All parties and civil society demand that the government should withdraw this decision immediately.