ISLAMABAD, Jan 10: Pakistan has disallowed transportation of around 50,000 tons of imported wheat to Afghanistan by the World Food Programme, due to its bad quality.

The agriculture ministry had objected to the quality of imported wheat the WFP was to carry through Pakistan, saying that it could infect local wheat.

When Commerce Minister Abdul Razak Dawood was asked about the situation at a news conference here on Thursday, he said: “We have to protect our interests and the product”.

Indicating that there were many problems in the export of that wheat, he said: “We want to examine it. We will check, if it is dangerous, obviously we will not allow (its transportation).”

The sources said that Pakistan had disallowed the imported wheat because it contained diseases that could have caused similar diseases to Pakistani wheat during its transportation.