Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governor Faisal Karim Kundi on Monday sought the intervention of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif against “unconstitutional restrictions” on the inter-provincial movement of wheat to the province.

The development comes as the Punjab government has faced criticism by the KP and Sindh governments for choking wheat flow to the two provinces. However, a day earlier, Punjab Information Minister Azma Bokhari insisted that there was no ban on the inter-provincial movement of wheat, terming the “ongoing propaganda in this regard baseless and contrary to facts”.

In a post on social media platform X today, the KP governor said he had written to the premier, urging his “immediate intervention to lift the unconstitutional restrictions” on the inter-provincial movement of wheat to the province.

“Such limitations not only affect the province’s food security but also go against the spirit of cooperative federalism enshrined in our Constitution,” he said.

He expressed his confidence that the matter would be resolved promptly “under the prime minister’s leadership”.

The letter, which Kundi also posted on X, termed the restrictions a “serious concern”, pointing out that KP was a “wheat-deficient province and depends substantially on inter-provincial inflows to meet its essential food requirements”.

It said that the restrictions were against Article 151 of the Constitution, which guaranteed freedom of trade, commerce and intercourse among the provinces.

“Any disruption in supply risks creating artificial shortages, price escalation and public hardship,” he said.

“It has further been observed that these limitations are unintentionally encouraging illegal and informal transportation of wheat through alternate means and routes, which is resulting in uncontrollable supply distortions in the open market. This diversion is causing [a] rapid escalation in wheat and flour prices, directly burdening the general public and potentially triggering unwarranted public resentment,” he said.

Kundi requested PM Shehbaz’s “kind and immediate intervention in this matter and direction to the concerned authorities” to withdraw the restrictions in order to ensure the........

© Dawn Business