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India-Pakistan
Pakistani troops escort wheat trucks to stop theft
2008-01-14
ISLAMABAD - Pakistani paramilitary troops have begun escorting trucks carrying wheat to stop supplies being stolen amid shortages of flour that have inflamed anger against the government before an election, an official said on Sunday.

Pakistanis are complaining bitterly about a shortage of wheat flour and rising prices of the staple food which the government has blamed on hoarding and smuggling to neighbouring countries.

Farooq Ahmed Khan, chief of the National Disaster Management Authority, said some supplies had been going missing somewhere along the supply chain. ‘It seemed there could be something wrong along the chain from warehouses to mills and then to distribution points,’ Khan told Reuters. ‘Basically, we’re providing escorts and will monitor the entire chain so there is no chance of pilferage,’ said Khan, whose authority is supervising the monitoring.

Authorities have also been given ‘special powers’ to detain hoarders and smugglers, he said.

Khan said wheat stocks were sufficient and he described the flour shortage as ‘artificial’. The government was monitoring borders to stop flour being smuggled out of the country, he said. ‘Within a few days thing should change for the better,’ he said.
Oh sure, yewbetcha. After that you're going to clean up Swat. Shouldn't take more than a week.
In recent days, angry shoppers have been queing for hours to get their hands on flour, adding to worries for the government in the run-up to a Feb. 18 general election. A top Agriculture Ministry official said the government had sufficient wheat stocks and about 1.5 million tonnes of imported wheat would reach Pakistan by the end of February.
Posted by:Steve White

#2  Another thing that crossed my mind is that Taliban elements in drug growing areas of Afghanistan will not find much forage in the way of grain stores among the local population. These forces would need to be fed from Pakistan, again using opium money in exchange for food. We are talking about quite large sums of money so I would think the drugs traffickers would be able to divert quite a bit of the supply.
Posted by: crosspatch   2008-01-14 13:13  

#1  Interesting. Where is the wheat going? Is it going to Afghanistan bought by clans who have decided to grow drugs instead of food?
Posted by: crosspatch   2008-01-14 13:10  

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