MULTAN, Dec 21: The Standing Committee on Cotton Crop Assessment (SCCCA) of the Pakistan Central Cotton Committee, a subsidiary of the Federal Agriculture Ministry, will meet here on Monday (today) for the first time in the ongoing cotton season to estimate the crop size for the year 2003-04.

State Food Minister Sikander Hayat Bosan will chair the meeting while Federal Agriculture Secretary Salik Nazeer Ahmed and cotton commissioner Qadir Bakhsh Baloch are also expected to attend it. The meeting will be held at the Central Cotton Research Institute on old Shujaabad Road.

Earlier, the SCCCA meeting had to be postponed thrice reportedly due to a number of reasons, including uncertainty, that clouded the cotton scene in September this year owing to the pest attack at a crucial time of the crop.

All the stakeholders of the cotton market like growers, ginners, spinners and exporters (of raw cotton) have representation on the committee.

REMANDED: Duty magistrate Mansoor Atta remanded Afsheen’s father advocate Mussarat Hussain Sahu for 14 days in judicial custody here on Sunday on the completion of his 14-day physical remand in police custody.

The local police had formally arrested Mussarat Sahu on Dec 7 last for allegedly killing his daughter reportedly for the sake of ‘honour’. Police claimed that Mussarat had come clean of his crime.

The other suspects in the murder case are on interim bails and additional district and sessions judge Abdul Sattar Khan will take up the matter of bail confirmation on Monday (today).

The suspects on interim bails are Afsheen’s grandfather Allah Ditta Sahu, brother Arsalan, Fazeel Raza, Taufeeq Ahmed, Hammad Karamat, Mazhar Dharala and Naeem Thaheem.