Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association (PCGA) has welcomed the Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani's statement that he would direct Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP) to start cotton procurement. "It will benefit the cotton grower instead of middleman." Talking to newsmen here Chairman of PCGA Amanullah Qureshi said that Prime Minister should ask the ministry of finance, textile and commerce to implement on his directive for the procurement of one million bales from the ginners.
He said that minimum 5 lakh bales must be purchased immediately as first step of bailout package. He vehemently condemn the statement of Federal Textile Minister Makhdoom Shahabuddin who had admitted to restrict the Trading Corporation of Pakistan from the procurement of cotton and said that he must be removed from the ministry of textile because he was playing the role of an agent of APTMA. He said that PCGA and growers would not attend any meeting to be held under his chairmanship in future.
He said that PCGA had appealed to Prime Minister in November for the procurement of one million bales when seven million bales were lying in the field. Prime Minister had issued orders for the purchase of one million bales of cotton on December 20, 2011, when five million bales were in the field and ten million came to the ginneries. PCGA said that farmers had to incur huge loss of Rs 225 billion due to anti-farmers and exploitative policies of ministry of textile. He said on Saturday that some elements were exploiting the farmers taking advantage of free trade mechanism. In fact, they were fleecing the farmers in the guise of international norms of trades.
He said that Government machinery did not act upon the advice of Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani regarding the purchase of cotton through Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP) and employed delaying tactics because bureaucracy as well as textile ministry was playing the game for the APTMA. He suggested that Prime Minister should ensure the procurement of at least 0.5 million bales of cotton to stabilise the local market. He asked why the TCP was reluctant to purchase the cotton when it had procured 3.5 lakh tonnes of sugar from the sugar mills.
Perhaps sugar mills were owned by some influential people and parliamentarians. He said that Prime Minister had reiterated his stance in Multan on the procurement of cotton through TCP and said that he had issued clear-cut orders for buying the one million bales from the ginners. Amanullah Qureshi said that cotton production of 17.5 million was expected in next season. If government neglected this sector, then it would not be possible to achieve the targets of production and farmers would be shifted to other cash produces.