ISLAMABAD, March 9: Pakistan's High Commissioner to Australia was summoned by the Australian government on Tuesday morning and handed down a strongly-worded criticism over Pakistan's decision to reject an Australian wheat consignment worth $30 million on the grounds of being contaminated with fungus, information released by the Australian High Commission here said.

Pakistan's High Commissioner agreed to the proposal for third country testing of the wheat and also to "send a cable home overnight recommending that the government take that course of action," the Australian government claimed after the meeting.

In a statement described by Pakistani authorities as serious aspersion on the country's scientific community and laboratory facilities, the Australian government said: "Now we have a concern that maybe the testing facility and capability of Pakistan is not quite up to the standard that is needed to be able to identify Karnal Bunt from other organisations."

The federal cabinet would be briefed on Wednesday (March 10) about the summoning of Pakistan's High Commissioner to Australia in Canberra, a cabinet source told Dawn.

A top Pakistani scientist in charge of the investigations of the wheat consignment rebuffed the Australian insult and said the country's grain testing laboratory facilities were second to none in the world.