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HYDERABAD, Sept 13: The Sindh Abadgar Board has accused the Trading Corporation of Pakistan of delaying purchase of 25,000 tonnes of the Sugdasi rice and said that it has created a sense of insecurity among the rice growers of Sindh.
In a communication addressed to the president, a copy of which was faxed to Dawn the other day, the president of the board, Abdul Majeed Nizamani, said that the TCP had floated a tender for the purchase of 25,000 tonnes out of 100,000 tons of the Sugdasi rice, available in Sindh.
He said that the TCP had frequently changed the dates of tender for the purchase of the rice and alleged that it had been done on the instance of the exporters of the Basmati rice.
He appealed to the president and the prime minister to direct the TCP officials to honour the date of tender and purchase 100,000 tonnes of the rice as already agreed upon. The SAB president said that the Sugdasi rice, a traditional aromatic variety of Sindh, had a market in the Middle East.
SPSF: The Sindh People's Students activists here on Friday took out a procession, demanding release of Asif Ali Zardari and withdrawal of cases against PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto and rejecting the Kalabagh dam project.
Carrying placards and banners inscribed with the demands and raising slogans against the government, they marched from the Gul Centre to the press club. Speaking on the occasion, the president the of the federation, Arshad Mughal, said that it had been proved that Ms Bhutto had been implicated in false cases, and demanded that the cases against her should be withdrawn and she should be allowed a safe return to Pakistan.
He said that the acquittal of Mr Zardari by the Lahore High Court had proved that he had been kept in jail for eight years without any reason. Rejecting proposed construction of the Kalabagh dam, Mr Mughal said that the project had been rejected by three provincial assemblies and people at large.
Meanwhile, PPP Sindh council member Aftab Ahmed Khanzada and People Engineers' Forum leader Sikandar Hayat Rajput distributed sweets on the acquittal of Mr Zardari in the Steel Mill reference case.
