MULTAN, Feb 20: Ministry for Food, Agriculture and Livestock has failed to get the Cotton Standardization Ordinance 2002, enforced even after one-and-half-year of its promulgation thanks to redtape.

The ordinance was promulgated on October 4, 2002, by the President Gen Pervez Musharraf in order to maintain cotton standards in the country and ensure production of contamination- free cotton. The Pakistan Cotton Standard Institute had been given a central role under the ordinance to set cotton standards in the country.

A board of directors for the PCSI was notified immediately after the promulgation of the ordinance with the secretary Minfal as its chairman. The board had representation from both public and private sectors.

Among the public sector, one representative each from the federal ministries of Agriculture, Commerce and Finance were on the PCSI board besides the representation of Pakistan Central Cotton Committee, agriculture departments of the four provinces, Trading Corporation of Pakistan and Textile Commissioner Organization.

From the private sector, All Pakistan Textile Mills Association, Karachi Cotton Association, Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association and the growers from federal and provincial territories were on the board.

Under the ordinance, the PCSI board had to meet at lease twice in a year provided that not more than a period of six months should intervene between its two meetings.

The PCSI board though has held its mandatory three meetings since the promulgation of the CSO but nothing significant could be achieved viz-a-viz restructuring of the institute to enable it to play the role envisioned in the ordinance.

In the first meeting of the board held on November 16 in Karachi, an executive committee having the TCP chief as its chairman was constituted to frame cotton standardization rules and propose restructuring of the PCSI.

The executive committee held four meetings before the second PCSI board meeting held on May 12, 2003, and came out with a number of suggestions. Among the proposals was a levy of Rs10 per bale of cotton to amass resources to turn the PCSI operational to carry out the task of establishing cotton standards in the country.

The second meeting of the PCSI board though remained by and large inconclusive regarding proposals floated by the executive committee but formed special sub-committee with agriculture development commissioner as its head to finalize proposals to determine the role of PCSI in cotton standardization.

Sources in the PCSI board said that the special sub-committee was in fact a sort of no confidence in the executive committee proposals which was constitutionally the principal administrative body of the institute.

They said some of the proposals floated by the executive committee might demand further discussion especially the huge size of PCSI establishment but it was "clash of grades" that rendered the executive committee ineffective. It may be added here that the present Minfal secretary is in BS-21 while the TCP chairman is serving in BS-22.

The special sub-committee was disbanded in the third PCSI board meeting held on November 1, 2003, when its suggestions were found against the spirit of the CSO. The sub-committee had termed the proposed regulatory role of the PCSI as against the present government's policy of deregulation and market economy and opined that the standardization must be a volunteer exercise.

The third board meeting observed that the cotton standardization could not be left to the mere "volunteer exercise" of the growers and ginners and that there should be a monitoring body to fashion cotton grading system in the country.

It was decided in the third PCSI board meeting that the provincial government should amend Cotton Control Act to make it mandatory for the ginners to mark each bale of cotton they pressed with grade and staple length.

District of Multan, Vehari, Rahim Yar Khan in Punjab and Sanghar and Ghotki in Sindh were selected to set up fibre testing laboratories to start implementation on the cotton standardization process from these areas.

Almost four months have been passed and the fourth PCSI board meeting will have to be convened before the month of May, but the matters on the front of cotton standardization are no where in the vicinity of being materialized.

The executive committee has not met even for once since the third board meeting and the provincial governments have yet to amend the cotton control act in line with the ordinance promulgated 18 months ago..

DAWN -NEWS