MULTAN, Oct 8: State Bank Governor, Dr Ishrat Hussain on Wednesday said that production of contamination-free cotton by year 2005 is a must to safeguard its marketability.

Addressing a meeting of the Bahawalpur Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI) at Bahawalpur, some 80 km off here, the SBP governor said “if we fail to respond to the WTO demand positively we will be wiped out from the world cotton market.”

According to a handout issued by the local PID, Dr Ishrat Hussain said that Rahim Yar Khan, a district of Bahawalpur division, has the honour of being the pilot district for producing cotton devoid of all sorts of contamination.

He listened to the problems of the Chamber members sympathetically and directed the SBP Bahawalpur zonal manager to form a credit advisory committee comprising industrialists and commercial bank managers to sort out the issues on a priority basis.

Replying to a question, he said that the government was extending all cooperation to facilitate Islamic and interest-free banking in the country, and Faysal Bank and Al-Meezan Bank are doing it very successfully.

Replying to another question, he said credit lines are being offered by the commercial banks for housing sector at the moment in big cities only like Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad.

Earlier, the Chamber President, Sheikh Muhammad Abbas Raza, presented his welcome address.—APP

Our Correspondent from Bahawalpur adds: Addressing the students of Management Sciences at Baghdad-ul-Jadid campus of Islamia University, Bahawalpur, the governor, said that during the next year the central bank and five other commercial banks would offer jobs to 500 MBAs of the best 20 universities of the country.

The SBP governor said that out of this, 50 jobs would be offered by the central bank.

On the occasion Dr. Ishrat announced internships for four best students of the university who secured top positions in Management Sciences.