MULTAN, March 17: Serious differences have cropped up between the two associations of pesticides business over the convenership of the sub-committee on the Pesticides Industrial Policy of the Experts Advisory Cell (EAC) of the federal ministry of industries and production.

Currently, the convenership of the sub-committee is with the Pakistan Crop Protection Association (PCPA), which claims to be the representative of local importers of pesticides.

PCPA's sitting chairman Ejaz Ahmed Chaudhry is the convener of the sub-committee, which has also been mandated to propose measures for tariff rationalization for the pesticides business.

First meeting of the sub-committee is scheduled to be held in Islamabad on March 31 to formulate tax and tariff proposals for the budget 2004-05. The other association in the pesticides business, CropLife Pakistan (CLP) has also given membership on the committee.

The sub-committee convener had surprisingly unilaterally nominated a CLP member to represent his association. However, in a letter to EAC chief Zahid Aziz while appreciating the sub-committee endeavour, CLP has objected to the matter of giving the convenership to the PCPA. Moreover, the CLP has also nominated its three officials to represent it on the sub-committee.

On the issue of convenership, the CLP argues that the CropLife is the only body of the pesticides business in Pakistan, that is, registered with the Director Trade Organizations (DTO) of the federal ministry of commerce, and therefore convener of the committee should be from the CLP and not from any unrecognized/unlicensed trade body. Therefore, the CLP has urged the EAC chief to reconstitute the sub-committee under the convenership from CropLife.

When talked, PCPA chief and sub-committee convener Ijaz Chaudhry deplored what he said the negative role of the CLP. He said being the representative body of the multi-national companies (MNCs) firms the CLP did not like to give any role in decision-making to the PCPA, even though the former association had the market share of only 40 per cent against the latter's 60 per cent.

He said it was now the responsibility of the DTO to what termed ground realities of the pesticides business in the country and also recognize the PCPA as a trade body. He said the DTO office always argued that there could be only one representative body of trade/business sector.