I READ your staffer’s dispatch on the above subject in your esteemed issue of Jan 22 with considerable interest. Good to know that 500 technical jobs will be provided. But it smacks as more of a motivated effort.  I had the honour to serve on the Pakistan Central Cotton Committee (PCCC) for more than two decades.

The fact that the PCCC needs staffing for improving its services to the private sector cannot be disputed.

But the question is why the PCCC during the last decade has been subjected to some uncalled-for actions which have not only hit it adversely, but have also pushed it to its present predicament?

Since its inception the PCCC was delivering all right and the actual decline began in 2005 when its headquarters housing other relevant fibre technological laboratories etc, were pulled down to clear its land for relocation of the US consulate for security reasons..

The question is still unanswered why the only the PCCC, set up at M.T. Khan Road, Karachi, was chosen for the US consulate, and other options were not explored to save it.

The sudden dislocation of PCCC research facilities came as a great shock to the research staff, who are working for years, but their protests bore no fruit.

The PCCC since its eviction from M.T. Khan Road is housing itself in rented buildings, which is not only a big drain on its meagre resources but are full of uncertainties. The PCCC is believed to have been compensated for its infrastructure. Why hasn’t that money been used so far to make a building for the PCCC to house its research laboratories, directorates and secretariat?

The PCCC, once unified under one roof at one place, is now fragmented. Some of it is supposed to work in Karachi, some in Multan, some in Lahore and some in Islamabad. The PCCC, since its inception, has had most of its vice presidents with a good scientific background.

I wish your esteemed paper instead of this report had given the readers the actual story of the ‘rise and fall of the PCCC’, fixing the responsibilities of injustices done to it, before the ministry of textile industry adopts the ‘Indian or the American model’ to improve the PCCC. It will be an exercise in futility.

The PCCC needs no restructuring but staffing with experienced and well-qualified hands to strengthen its multi-disciplinary research as millions of people are involved in it from field to factory. The research staff may also be sent abroad to update themselves in their respective fields.

Above all, the PCCC needs to be provided with a full time vice president, like before, who is well-qualified and well-experienced to keep the PCCC rolling with his dynamic leadership. That is all what the PCCC needs to regain its glory.

M. SHAFIQUE AHMED Karachi