12 June 2004	Saturday	23 Rabi-us-Saani 1425

ISLAMABAD, June 11: The Australian wheat was rejected by the government of Pakistan as being unfit for human consumption, although it had since been purchased by UAE, Sri Lanka and Indonesia , High Commissioner of Australia, Mr Howard Brown, said here on Friday.

Breaking silence after months of controversy at a press conference held at the High Commission, he said the allegation that the wheat stock in question was infested with various contaminants, including Karnal Bunt, was not based on scientific testing techniques.

The newsmen were seated around a dining table and, at his suggestion, they ate parts of a bread which he said had been made precisely from the wheat which the Pakistan authorities had refused to accept.

The implied objective was to prove that the wheat was, in fact, safe. In fact, he pointed out, 20,000 tons of the same wheat had been obtained by the World Food Programme for distribution in Afghanistan.

Moreover, after the shortage of wheat hit Pakistan early this year, the government of Sindh requested and obtained from WFP 5,000 tons of that same wheat. Referring to the charge of infestation, he said the Australian Wheat Board had proposed to the government of Pakistan the testing of wheat by a third party as per the relevant international convention. Islamabad, however, spurned the proposal.

It, however, got samples re-tested at the National Agricultural Research Centre under the supervision of a committee that was headed by Prof. Atta ur Rehman, Adviser on Science & Technology. Three plant pathologists from Australia also arrived for the purpose.

While the NARC confirmed the earlier verdict of PASSCO against the wheat, the Australian experts rejected the technique as well as results of the tests as being inappropriate.

Their argument was that the Karnal bent under the botanical name, "Tilletia indica" could be distinguished from a similarly looking spore (Tilletia walkeri) only through DNA molecular test and not through visible test carried out through microscope at the NARC.

While Tilletia indica was completely harmless, the Tilletia indica was the source of fungus harmful to wheat. But, Mr. H.C. Hunt said, the latter had never existed and "does not exist" in Australia. It was of South Asian origin and existed in Pakistan too.

Pointing out that Australia was a source of 26 per cent of total wheat exports in the world, Mr Bent said every consignment of wheat was thoroughly checked to guard against any contamination so that his country's integrity as wheat exporter could be protected.

He was non-committal on whether Australia would consider participating in a future tender for wheat by Pakistan in the context of its decision to import one million tons of wheat this year.