ISLAMABAD, Oct 19: The inter-ministerial committee has decided that the Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP) will set up a warehouse in Multan to buy and stock cotton from adjacent areas.

The committee headed by Commerce Minister Humayun Akhtar Khan met on Tuesday to review the cotton procurement prices. Minister for Food and Agriculture Sikandar Hayat Bosan, Minister for Industries and Production Jahangir Tareen, Minister for Textile Industry Mushtaq Ali Cheema and Minister of State for Commerce Hamid Yar Hiraj also attended the meeting.

The committee decided that the corporation would buy and stock cotton from the adjacent areas of Muzafargarh, Sahiwal, Khanewal, Lodharan, Vehari and D.G. Khan.

The committee also decided that the TCP would offer contracts of up to another 1,000 bales with ginning factories, which had already sold 1,000 bales to the corporation.

The committee was informed that the TCP was aggressively buying cotton to help stabilize cotton prices in the market to the benefit of growers.

It was pertinent to mention that the inter-ministerial committee was holding regular weekly meetings in view of the importance of the issue.