LAHORE, Sept 11: Pakistan will import 100,000 tons of urea fertilizer immediately to help avert shortage of this agro-chemical during the upcoming wheat sowing season.

"We are going to import another 250,000 tons of urea afterwards to meet the requirement of this fertilizer during the months of December and January," Industries, Production and Special Initiatives Minister Jehangir Khan Tareen told reporters here on Saturday.

He said that a major compulsion for Pakistan to import urea fertilizer was an increase in the consumption of urea fertilizer. He said the government was also planning to set up another urea manufacturing plant, which would get feedstock natural gas from Mari Gas Field.

Responding to a question about high bill of exports of phosphatic fertilizers like Di-Ammono Phosphate (DAP), Mr Tareen said the production of phosphatic fertilizer in Pakistan was not economically viable as all the raw material like rock phosphate had to be imported from the countries like Jordan and Morocco.-APP