MULTAN, June 4: PML-QA leader and a former speaker of the national assembly, Syed Fakhar Imam, has urged the government to fix minimum price of phutti (seed cotton) at Rs900 per 40kg for the 2002-2003 season.

In a statement on Tuesday, he expressed concerns over the growers’ lack of interest in cotton this year. He said that according to official figures, 22 per cent less cotton was sown by May 31 as compared to the same period last year.

He said that shortage of irrigation water and price depression in the cotton market last season shock growers’ confidence in the silver fibre were the reasons behind the glaring difference between the two years.

He said that hardly two weeks left to the prime sowing period of cotton — May 15 to June 15. The government should announce its cotton policy for the coming fiscal year immediately to restore the growers’ confidence in the crop which was the mainstay of the country’s agro-based economy.

He suggested that as confidence building measures, the government should increase the support price of phutti from Rs780 to Rs900 per 40kg; ensure that the Trading Corporation of Pakistan would procure at least 1 million bales of cotton as part of the price stabilization operation; cotton of 40 or more spinning counts only be allowed for import so that no one could artificially depress prices in the local market under the pretext of huge stocks.