Pakistan, Oct. 14 -- Our wheat market is once again in trouble. Prices of wheat and flour are rising fast, even though both Sindh and Punjab governments claim to have enough stock.

A few days ago, the Sindh cabinet decided to release 1.26 million tonnes of wheat to flour mills at Rs3,800 per maund. Punjab, on the other hand, restricted the movement of wheat to other provinces. But despite these steps, the prices keep going up - showing that something deeper is wrong.

The problem began when feed mills started using wheat instead of maize to make animal feed. Around 1.6 million tonnes of wheat were reportedly used for this purpose in just four months.

The Punjab government banned this practice in September, but by then, a large portion o...