October 08, 2006	Sunday	Ramazan 14, 1427

ISLAMABAD, Oct 7: Pakistan has not been invited to attend the 2nd International Rice Congress 2006 to be held in New Delhi to display various products of rice.

An official said the event jointly organised by International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) and Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), India from October 9-13, 2006.

This event will focus on innovations for efficiency enhancement in view of the increasing need to conserve resource use in rice. All important aspects of rice research and related environmental and economic impacts will be covered in several sessions and satellite work-group meetings.

The official said it was most surprising that there was no mention of Pakistan in any research or presentation paper at all. “If we export $1.2 billion worth of rice, is it not proper that we should have been actively a part of the Congress to display to the world that we are abreast with the global progress in rice?”

Pakistan, according to the official, has unfortunately left the field open to the only other producer of Basmati in the world to display ‘their heritage in Basmati’ and claim it as well that they have already been doing this quite blatantly without even a meek response from us as trade or government. Case in example is Super Basmati theft, he added.