Commerce Ministry has rejected Food Ministry's specifications for import of wheat asking it to give second thought to make them comprehensively cover all the aspects of the case.
An official of the Commerce ministry told Business Recorder on Monday that the Food Ministry's specifications were silent on the procedure of testing of the commodity and names of the labs to be assigned the job on arrival of the shipment.
The official indicated some other deficiencies in the specifications but refrained from going into further details saying "We have returned specifications to the Food ministry with a note that it should give them second thought to incorporate all necessary information."
The policy makers in Islamabad attach great importance to the question of testing of the commodity after landing, since they had bad experience of similar nature when Pakistan imported Australian wheat early this year.
The said controversy had taken turn for the worse since Australian government rejected Pakistan's lab tests, which confirmed that imported Australian wheat was short of specifications. The controversy is yet to come to a logical end.
The authorities would not like to have the same experience once again since any such development would scar Pakistan's credibility.
It is believed that the Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP), would have taken up the issue with the Commerce Minister, Humayun Akhtar Khan, when he was given a presentation by Chairman Masood Alam Rizvi on arrangements made so far for import of the commodity.
The federal cabinet had approved import of one million tons wheat to meet any shortage in the future and the task has been assigned this time to the TCP.
The official said that the authorities would come up with a clear set of specifications for international tenders to be floated to import wheat, in line with the federal cabinet's decision taken some time back, so that no ambiguity could be created by importer or any other party for any reason whatsoever.