RAHIM YAR KHAN, March 4: The government will purchase one million bales of ginned cotton through the Trading Corporation of Pakistan.

The assurance was held out by federal commerce minister Razzaq Dawood and agriculture minister Khair Muhammad Junejo to a delegation of the Pakistan Cotton Ginners Associ-ation at a meeting in Islamabad.

PCGA chairman Sheikh Muhammad Saeed told a news conference here on Monday that the delegation had informed the two ministers of the prevailing cotton crisis.

The commerce minister assured the delegation that the government would purchase cotton for Rs1,855 per maund. The TCP would purchase cotton in commercial packing instead of export packing. In this connection, instructions were being issued to the TCP, he said.

The minister assured the delegation that the government would protect the interests of growers and ginners and accept their genuine demands.

The delegation told the ministers that the TCP was not purchasing cotton despite the government instructions. It demanded the minister to instruct the TCP to purchase cotton at the support price of Rs1,855 per maund otherwise the ginning industry would be ruined.