MULTAN, Feb 28: The future of Pakistani cotton does not seem to be very promising as there is practically no system of standardization and grading in the country to meet the challenges of impending new global and regional trade regimes.

This was the common assertion of the leaders of local cotton market stakeholders when interviewed on Saturday. They all were unanimous in saying that the cotton standardization system, if any, did not exist beyond the officialdom of the ministry of food, agriculture and livestock. The leaders said the claim that Cotton Standardization Ordinance 2002, had almost been implemented held no water.

Most of them feared that even the local buyers would opt to procure raw cotton from other countries if things were not improved on the standardization front. Textile millers said that owing to shortfall in the domestic cotton production this year they had imported cotton from India and they were surprised to see the standards the neighbouring country was observing.

Leading textile miller and cotton exporter A. Razzaq Tabba said after being disappointed with the domestic cotton he had now started importing as much as 95 per cent of his requirement. He said this year he had imported a sizable quantity of cotton from India and was completely satisfied with its quality and standards.

Mr Tabba said he also imported cotton from Sudan, Ethiopia, Yemen, Ivory Coast, Mali and Togo and surprisingly these extremely backward countries also observed a strict cotton standardization system.

He said due to high ratio of trash and moisture in the Pakistani cotton its price depreciated at least by 15 per cent in the international market. "No standardization can be implemented without strict enforcement of the relevant laws."

Owner of a textile group, which is known as the single-largest buyer of the domestic cotton, said on the request of anonymity that in reality there were no cotton standards in the country and there was no will in the relevant corners to get them implemented, if there were any. He said he had imported some 30,000 bales of cotton this year from India and quality and standards of Indian cotton had opened his eyes. Its simply marvellous, he added, saying "I will visit India in the coming cotton season to see how the people there have achieved these standards."

Cotton ginner Sheikh Muhammad Saeed, who played an important role as chairman of Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association in the making of CSO 2002, said former Commerce Minister Abdul Razak Dawood and former Agriculture Minister Khair Muhammad Juenjo were the moving spirit behind the cotton standardization ordinance and after them none had bothered to take care of the matter.

He said not even a single bale of cotton was being pressed in the country under the standards laid down in the ordinance or even under the regulations that were supposed to be in vogue before the CSO 2002. He said the PCGA had time and again urged the government to set up at least 10 fibre testing laboratories in the cotton growing areas of Sindh and Punjab, but to no avail.

Mr Saeed said that though the Karachi Cotton Association had started announcing its spot rates on the basis of type and grade rather than on variety and area, the exporters were still striking deals under the latter method. He said the cotton control acts of the provinces had yet to be amended in line with the CSO. He said what to talk about the enforcement of the standards as the Board of Directors of Pakistan Cotton Standard Institute could not reach a consensus decision in its three meetings held so far as how to implement the ordinance.

In the first meeting of the board held on November 16, 2002 in Karachi, an executive committee having the TCP chief as its chairman was constituted to frame cotton standardization rules and propose restructuring of the PCSI. The committee presented its recommendations in the second board meeting held on May 12, 2003. The executive committee had supported the regulatory role of the PCSI across-the-board in line with the CSO.

Interestingly, the new board chairman ignored the proposals of the executive committee, observing that they were against the government's policy of deregulation and constituted a special sub- committee with agricultural development commissioner Dr Muhammad Haneef as its head to envisage the formula how could the CSO be implemented.

Grower member on the PCSI board, Khwaja Muhammad Shuaib said that President Gen Pervez Musharraf had promulgated the ordinance keeping in view the future trading of cotton in the international market and the proposals of the executive committee were also workable with some minor amendments. He said unfortunately the special sub-committee suggested recommendations amounted to bruise the spirit of the CSO by declaring that standardization could only be a volunteer exercise. He said though the sub-committee's recommendations were rejected in the third board meeting held on November 1, 2003, by that time another cotton season had passed without standards.

Another grower member on the board from Punjab, Saddiq Akbar Bokhari said the people lived in fool's paradise who said that Pakistan was the leader in cotton standardization in Southeast Asia. He said the ground reality was that there were no standards being observed in the country at present.