19 October 2004	Tuesday	04 Ramazan 1425

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ISLAMABAD, Oct 18: Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz on Monday directed authorities concerned to immediately arrange for export of at least 100,000 bales of cotton.

These instructions were issued by the prime minister during his meetings with ministers and party lawmakers in his parliament house chamber here.

The prime minister also discussed with the coalition lawmakers the political situation with reference to opposition's agitation and party matters.

He also asked the lawmakers to air their grievances in meetings with him and keep in touch with the special cell that had been set up at the Prime Minister's Secretariat for them.

He appealed to the lawmakers to maintain discipline in party matters with particular reference to the upcoming no-trust vote against the speaker.

The government has already decided that the treasury members will abstain from voting in the no-trust vote, taking the plea that the onus of proving the majority lay with the opposition which had moved the no-trust motion.

During his meeting with MNAs from Multan, Rahimyar Khan and Bhawalpur, the premier was informed that the cotton production was expected to exceed the target of one million bales and the farmers were by and large satisfied by the pace of procurement by TCP.

The prime minister said that water flow was getting better after recent rains in different parts of the country.

He said 0.15 million tons urea had been imported for the Rabi crop while Fauji-Jordan of Karachi which manufactured urea and DAP had been revived and the Fatima Sugar mills owners were setting up a new fertiliser factory to end shortage of fertiliser.

The government, he said, was providing Rs560 a bag subsidy on urea besides incurring heavy losses because of supplying oil at subsidised rates despite a huge rise in international oil prices.

He said the government had incurred a loss of Rs20 billion so far from this account.

The prime minister said that the manufacturing sector was growing up with A great pace as every industrial unit was expanding its operations.

Similarly, he said, the government was giving top priority to the agriculture and repairs of Sukkur and Jinnah barrages had been taken in hand. Besides, water lining had also been started under a crash programme to arrest water leakage.

The prime minister asked elected representatives to draw up development schemes for their respective constituencies.

In his meeting with MNAs from Sindh, the prime minister urged the PML leaders to strengthen their contacts with workers and the people in their constituencies and make efforts to complete development schemes in their constituencies.