KARACHI: The Sindh government on Thursday expressed serious reservations over federal government’s decision to import urea fertiliser, and demanded immediate reversal of the decision.

Talking to Dawn, Adviser to the Chief Minister on Agriculture Manzoor Hussain Wassan said that the provincial government would not buy imported urea fertiliser as it was produced locally on a large scale.

“There is a shortage of urea in the country because the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf-led federal government is exporting it to Afghanistan to facilitate and benefit mafia’s business,” he alleged.

He said that the PTI government in centre was a threat to the country’s agriculture sector and food security.

“Though Pakistan is an agricultural country, it is importing wheat, sugar, pulses, urea fertiliser and other commodities,” he wondered.

The adviser said that the imported urea fertiliser would be available at the rate of over Rs11,000 per bag while the local urea fertiliser was available for Rs1,700 to Rs2,700 per bag.

He advised the federal government to control the “artificial” shortage and asked it to devise a mechanism to curb smuggling of urea instead of importing it.

“Many other countries, including China, have banned export of fertiliser to provide relief to local producers,” he said.

Mr Wassan alleged that the federal government wanted to create a wheat crisis and was not protecting rights of farmers.

“If this situation continues, then wheat crop will not be available to the public,” he apprehended.

He further said that Sindh government would not allow the federal government to destroy the agriculture sector of the province.

Published in Dawn, January 7th, 2022