MULTAN, Sept 14: Former National Assembly speaker and progressive farmer Syed Fakhar Imam has suggested to shift the Pakistan Central Cotton Committee (PCCC) to Multan as the city is a centre of cotton belt in south Punjab.

In a press release issued here on Saturday, the former speaker said the PCCC had played a pivotal role in promoting cotton production in Pakistan and was solely responsible for conducting research on cotton and its products.

He said cotton and cotton-based products contributed 62 per cent of country’s total export and 40 per cent of the industrial labour was employed in the textile sector, while 65 per cent of the local edible oil was extracted from cottonseed.

He said the Indian Central Cotton Committee was established in 1923 under the Cotton Cess Act 1923 and its successor PCCC continued to perform its functions under the said statute, while the PCCC generated its own revenue as it charged a cess for every bale used in the country or exported.

“At the first meeting of the PCCC in 1949, it was decided to set up Pakistan Cotton Research and Technology Institute in Karachi, and this institute has had an invaluable contribution to the economy through development of cotton varieties based on research activities carried out by the institute,” he said.

He said the cotton production was one million bales in 1947 and now it had reached to 12 to 14 million bales.

He said in 2005, the government decided to shift PCCC from its original offices located on Mai Lolachi Road to Gulshan-i-Iqbal Karachi.

“This decision was taken in haste without acquiring a proper place for the PCCC. The PCCC’s elaborate research programme which was housed on Mai Lolachi Road with eight laboratories was doing research of high order and after the dislocation most of the hi-tech laboratory equipment has turned into garbage,” he said.

He said the government should immediately set up an inquiry committee to ascertain why the PCCC, a national institution of great importance, was dislocated and why after eight years it had not been located in a suitable place.

He said such ill-considered, thoughtless and ad hoc decisions had cost the citizens and the country billions of rupees, and it was about time that the PCCC be properly located.

“As the authorities have failed to find a suitable location befitting the importance of PCCC, my suggestion is that it should be shifted and located in Multan, which is the centre of the cotton belt in south Punjab,” he concluded.