KARACHI, Nov 7: Union of Small and Medium Enterprises (Unisame) has asked the government to introduce ‘Green Channel’ for basmati rice exporters. In a communication to Commerce Minister Humayun Akhtar Khan, Unisame president Zulfikar Thaver said that presently the highly politicized Quality Review Committee (QRC) run by Rice Exporters Association of Pakistan (REAP) was doing the pre-shipment inspection (PSI) of export shipments.

He said this tantamount to putting a thief on a guard’s job and still expect to have honest and good results. Mr Thaver said that the PSI job was entrusted to QRC managed by REAP by the Nawaz government. “When the exporters’ body itself is allowed to carry out PSI obviously one should not expect that it would be carried out honestly and without any prejudices against each other.”

He chief said that in REAP there were several groups, who even contest annual elections on this basis, but what had been witnessed that every ruling group could not be honest while carrying out PSI of their opponent group.

He further said that despite the fact that successive governments had been asked to correct the situation and ensure level-playing field to all rice exporters by liberating QRC from REAP, but somehow or the other the main issue remained unresolved and causing a lot of damage to rice exports.

Thaver said that in the past the offices of QRC was in the personal office of the late ex-vice chairman of REAP and on our insistence they shifted it to separate premises but now again it had been shifted back in the same building. “Consequently, the office-bearers of the REAP exactly know who is exporting where and at what price and to whom.”

He said one could not survive if his trade secrets were disclosed to adversaries and many exporters had already lost their markets on this ground causing colossal losses.

He suggested to the ministry of commerce to grant the option of PSI to TCP as it would enable exporters to have their cargo inspected without any prejudices and injustices.

However, REAP chairman Haji Abdul Majid refuted these allegations and said that the QRC was functioning perfectly well and was serving rice exporters and international buyers at par excellence.

He said that achievements of REAP, QRC and activities of rice exporters be encouraged for larger interest of the country and hoped rice export would soon touch $1 billion mark.