LAHORE, Jan 7: The opposition in the Punjab Assembly on Wednesday challenged the statistics submitted by Food Minister Chaudhry Iqbal to the house during the question hour.

PPP's Raja Riaz said the minister had claimed that 99 per cent dues of sugarcane growers had been paid by sugar mills owners while the actual position was to the contrary.

He offered to resign as MPA if the statistics submitted by the minister in the house was proved correct. The minister should resign if his (Raja Riaz's) stance was proved correct.

Deputy opposition leader Rana Sanaullah said the written answers provided to the house revealed that the growers were yet to be paid over Rs3,095 million dues, while Chaudhry Iqbal was saying that the figures had been misquoted as only a sum of Rs130 was outstanding.

He said that a chit sent from food department officials sitting in the visitors' gallery had supplied the minister correct figures. Replying to another question, the minister said there was no ban on movement of wheat in the province, nor there was any wheat or flour crisis in the Punjab.

He said the sale of wheat in open markets was creating a competitive atmosphere and resulting in improved quality of the commodity. The house was informed that not a single report from any part of the province had poured in revealing that wheat stocks in government godowns had been damaged by pest attack or any other reason since 1999.

The minister said Naib Nazims throughout the province had been asked to report about the wheat stocks. Not a single negative report in this regard was received.

No flour mill had yet pointed out or complained in black and white about the supply of poor quality or rotten commodity, he added. He said the food department had also appointed experts at divisional level to spray insecticides on wheat stocks, while inspection cells had been set up at food directorate and secretariat level for ensuring protection of the commodity.

The house was told that during the last year and the ongoing financial year, the Punjab had exported 642,804 tons of wheat through the Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP). Afghanistan was exported 8,389 tons of wheat during the last couple of years.

To another question, it was said that the food department had the standard capacity of storing 2.5 million tons of wheat. The capacity could be enhanced to 3.0 million tons to meet any eventuality.