Flour Mills Association strike continues - Latest Updates
Flour Mills Association strike continues - Latest Updates
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00:00In Karachi, the flour mills are shut down due to which the issue of flour crisis has arisen.
00:06Let us find out the situation on this issue.
00:09Our representative Anjum Wahab is with us.
00:12We have Ahmed Mirza with us from Multan.
00:16We will find out the situation from both of them.
00:18What is the situation there after this big decision and protest?
00:22First of all, let us go to Karachi.
00:24Let us find out the situation in Karachi.
00:26The flour mills are shut down due to which the issue of flour crisis has arisen.
00:30The supply of flour has also stopped.
00:36Or do you think that the crisis will continue?
00:42There are about 100 to 200 flour mills in Karachi.
00:45There are also about 250 to 300 wheat mills.
00:48The wheat mill association has said that the retailers are involved in the crisis.
00:54The flour mills are shut down.
00:56There are about 100 flour mills in Karachi.
00:58There are about 70 to 80,000 sacks of wheat in Karachi.
01:02There are about lakhs of kilos of wheat in Karachi.
01:06The flour mills are shut down due to which the issue of flour crisis has arisen.
01:09The chairman of the flour mill association, Aamir Abdullah, has said that
01:12the flour mills will remain shut until the withholding tax is paid.
01:17He has said that the withholding tax has been paid since 1st July.
01:20The tax for a lakh rupee wheat mill has been collected by the government.
01:25He has said that the tax should be paid on the retail level,
01:28not on the flour mills.
01:30He has said that the tax should be paid on the retail level.
01:35The flour mills are already paying taxes
01:37and this tax is not applicable to them.
01:39He has said this and has also met the chairman of the flour mill association.
01:44He has also faced failure in the negotiations.
01:48The situation now is that, as he said last evening,
01:51until the withholding test is not taken back, the strike call will not be taken back.
01:56Now the situation is that in the city of Karachi, there are thousands of bakwan centres, hotels, tandoor mills,
02:02tandoor factories, bakery items, flour and flour is used everywhere.
02:08Supply has been stopped since yesterday.
02:10If someone has a quota of one to two days, it will end today or tomorrow.
02:14In the same way, the quota on the shops that they have bags of 10 kg or open flour,
02:20that will also start to end.
02:22Because hundreds of thousands of kgs of flour is supplied to the city by grinding wheat daily.
02:26So, if we talk about daily supply, how much flour is supplied in Karachi?
02:32Approximately, as he said hundreds of thousands of kgs,
02:37he had to say that if we had it, hundreds of thousands of kgs of flour would have gone.
02:41Approximately 70,000 to 80,000 sacks of wheat are ground and hundreds of thousands of kgs of flour are supplied to the city.
02:48So, he had to say that our different buyers,
02:52in which there are food factories, who prepare bakery items,
02:56bakwan centres, who prepare sweets and rotis, tandoor mills,
03:00along with this, the purchase and sale of flour is done on the domestic level.
03:06People buy 1 kg or 2 kgs of flour on a daily basis,
03:09sometimes they buy 10 kgs or 20 kgs of wheat and take it.
03:11So, this is the situation.
03:12When we talked to the shopkeepers, the small shopkeepers,
03:15they said that their flour will end today.
03:18The situation of the wholesale market is that
03:20the chairman of the wholesale market, Abdul Rahul Ibrahim,
03:25said that their market will also have more than one or two days of flour,
03:28and that will also be sold.
03:30If the strike is prolonged, then there is a possibility of a shortage of flour.
03:34Stay with us.
03:35You said that the shopkeepers are saying that there is supply till today.
03:39The wholesalers are saying that there is a supply of one to two days.
03:41Let's go to Multan.
03:42Let's know the situation in Multan.
03:43Because when such a situation arises, then we see that the prices also start going up.
03:49Mirza Ahmad Ali, you tell us, what is the situation in Multan?
03:52First of all, tell us, is the strike as effective here as you are hearing reports from Karachi?
03:59Yes, absolutely.
04:00The situation in Multan is not different from that in Karachi.
04:03Today is the second day in Multan.
04:05There are 70 to 75 flour mills in the city.
04:07In addition to this, there are also mills.
04:09All the flour mills have been shut down.
04:11On the call of the flour mill association, this strike is being carried out.
04:15As you know, the effects of the strike have begun to come.
04:18Because the shopkeepers, the retailers do not have flour.
04:22The wholesalers have a stock of one or two days.
04:25Right now, we are on TB Road, where there are flour mills.
04:28And the flour dealers are also here.
04:32They have a stock of one or two days.
04:35But the effects have begun to come due to this strike.
04:38The 15 kg bag on different brands, on the 15 kg bag of fine flour,
04:4280 to 180 rupees per kg, 180 rupees increase is seen on the 15 kg bag.
04:48Similarly, the 10 kg bag was being sold for 850 rupees.
04:51It is now being sold at some places for 1000 rupees and at some places for 920 rupees.
04:57The small shopkeepers do not have flour.
04:59The dealers have a stock of one or two days.
05:02The city is worried.
05:04The shopkeepers are also worried that if this strike is prolonged,
05:07where will they get flour?
05:09As you know, all the flour mills in Multan are on strike.
05:14They have been shut down.
05:16Whereas, the flour dealers are also in trouble.
05:20Stay with us, Mirza Ahmed Ali.
05:22Let's go to Almas.
05:23Let's know about the situation in Lahore.
05:26Almas, tell us, there are similar issues in Lahore.
05:29Is there any way out in this situation?
05:33It seems that a window has been opened to talk and stop this strike.
05:41Yes, Sadaf, just like the rest of the country,
05:43during the strike in Lahore,
05:46the Pakistan Flour Mills Association
05:50has shut down all the flour mills in Lahore.
05:56The next question is, is there any way out?
06:00I will tell you, Sadaf, that there is no way out.
06:03Because this is the pressure of the IMF.
06:05The government sits in front of the pressure of the IMF.
06:08When the government sits, what will happen to these poor people?
06:12When we spoke to the Pakistan Flour Mills Association,
06:18they said that the tax collection is the job of the government.
06:24It is the job of the FBR.
06:26They should collect the tax.
06:27Why should we collect the tax and give it to the government?
06:30Our job is to just grind wheat
06:33and supply flour to the market.
06:36Fine flour, whatever it is.
06:38Their grinding has been stopped since the day before.
06:41Today is the second day.
06:43Yesterday, their grinding also stopped.
06:45All the flour mills in Lahore.
06:47And the day before yesterday, their wheat was washed.
06:52Almas, like Anjum from Karachi is saying,
06:58Mirza Ahmed Ali Multan is saying,
07:00that the shopkeepers have a supply of one day
07:03and the wholesalers have a stock of one to two days.
07:06Is this the same situation in Lahore?
07:09Sadaf, the supply chain here,
07:14where I am standing right now,
07:17the flour mills are still there.
07:20We have seen that the bags are still there.
07:22But their supply has been stopped since yesterday.
07:26Their main distributor goes to them.
07:30And the next one to them is Parchun Sailor.
07:34Here, the supply is stopped.
07:36Their main distributor has a stock of four days.
07:41This cannot be said.
07:43But if this strike continues,
07:46then in four to five days,
07:48its impact will reach people's homes.
07:52People may not get flour there after five days.
07:57I am talking about Lahore.
07:59The situation will be different in Karachi.
08:01Because the flour mills in Lahore,
08:05their supply goes to KPK.
08:10We want these issues to be resolved
08:15and the people get out of this situation.
08:19Thank you so much, Anjum Wahab.
08:20Mirza Ahmed Ali from Almas Khan, Lahore, is with us.
08:23So you have seen the situation of three big cities in Pakistan.
08:27The flour mills have been shut down.
08:29Before that, the flour mills were shut down.
08:31The available flour has not reached its distributors.
08:35So this is the situation.
08:36There is a stock of one to two days left.
08:38Let's see what impact this strike will have.