ISLAMABAD: The government has confiscated about 70 containers of substandard wheat imported from Ukraine by the private sector and tasked the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) for a detailed inquiry.

Taking serious note of the import of substandard wheat, the National Assembly Standing Committee on National Food Security directed the concerned authorities that the confiscated wheat should not be supplied to flour mills and instead should be used for the purpose of poultry feed.

During the debate on import of substandard wheat, officials of the ministry of national food security were of the view that the import of any commodity cannot be stopped as per the regulations of World Health Organisation (WHO).

The ministry informed the committee that the government was taking serious steps on the Afghan Transit Trade and the Indian wheat would not be allowed to enter into Pakistani territory for its export to Afghanistan.

The committee meeting chaired by MNA Malik Shakir Bashir Awan and attended by eleven members, failed to develop a consensus to fix the support price of wheat despite the fact the government has already fixed the support price at Rs1300 for 2014-15 wheat crop.

Secretary National Food Security, Seerat Asghar infor­med the committee about the mechanism to fix support price.

The committee would hold another session next week to deliberate on this issue.

Published in Dawn, November 8th , 2014