ISLAMABAD, Jan 13: The government has finally decided to challenge the New Delhi decision of including Pakistan’s indigenous super basmati rice in its exportable list in the Indian court after a lapse of seven months.

The Indian commerce ministry on May 24, 2006 had allowed export of super basmati rice as an evolved (hybrid) variety by amending the export of basmati rice (quality control and inspection) rules, 2003.

An official in the commerce ministry on condition of anonymity told Dawn that it was decided to hire a lawyer or law firm in India to seek details about the nature of the case along with procedures.

The official said the legal process would be completed within short time before actually filing the case in the Indian court.

On the other hand, the All India Rice Exporters Association (Airea) had approached the department of agriculture and cooperation in New Delhi for necessary notification to register Pakistan’s super basmati as new variety ‘Shabnam’ under the Seeds Act, 1966.

A leading super basmati grower told this reporter that the Indian farmers tried twice to register Pakistani variety in their Seed Act but failed.

He said the registration of super basmati by India was not an issue of production in India but it was purely a marketing strategy to buy Pakistani rice from our exporters in bulk in Dubai and repack it with Indian brands for export to the world market.

The grower said that India just want to get hold of the rice market in the leading rice consuming countries including Middle theEast.

The government remained silent over the continuous misusing of the name of Pakistan’s indigenous basmati rice varieties by the Indian farmers and registering them with their own brand names.

An official said that on the other hand, the government has yet to decide whether to register super basmati as geographical indication (GI) or under the trade mark law. As government has yet to draft a GIs law for the country to protect the indigenous products from being stolen.

In 1998 two brothers -- Kuldip Singh and Surinder Singh – came to Pakistan from India on a pilgrimage to the Sikh holy places. On way back they took two kg of super basmati seeds with them, and this variety started multiplying in India.

In the Kharif season 2003, the Indian Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) at Ludhiana officially released 'super' after working on these Pakistani seeds for about three years. Through scientific selection and screening, the seed was purified to suit the Indian field conditions and was released by the name of `Shabnam'.