I AM glad to read in your Advertisement Supplement of Dec 18, 2012, remarks of Dr Jassu Mal Leemani, Chairman, Sindh Agro-Industries, that the “Pakistan Central Cotton Committee (PCCC) is the nation’s primary organisation for research and development in cotton and dissemination of the resulting information”.

The PCCC, as I have also tried to express earlier in Dawn, is not making the desired progress, as was envisaged after its dislocation from M.T. Khan Road, Karachi, and restructuring for its good.

The research divisions of the PCCC are now separated from each other and the concept of coordinated research has almost gone.

The PCCC, as its founders considered, needed to work under one roof and not to be vivisected, as is being contemplated now.

Cotton and jute, the two fibre crops, were given to the federal government for some special reasons, which still hold good. It is also true that the cotton growers are now not getting benefit, though the PCCC was primarily brought into existence for their larger interest.

If any change has to be brought in the structure of the PCCC, it is important that all stakeholders be consulted before the PCCC is given a new shape to function properly. The PCCC needs its own building at the earliest and work according to the charter given to it.

M. SHAFIQUE AHMED Karachi