SANGHAR, Jan 22: The general secretary of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) and the Jamiat-i-Ulma-i-Islam (JUI), Dr Khalid Mehmood Soomro, has said that his party was not against an Urdu-speaking governor in Sindh but was opposing a man “who was involved in murder cases” and Rs3 million had been fixed as head money and now he had been made the governor of Sindh.

Addressing a press conference on Tuesday at the press club, he alleged that Mr Jamali was wanted by the NAB and had been made the prime minister of Pakistan.

He said that the leadership of the MMA just to save the fragile democracy cooperated with the Jamali government in the hope that he would deliver the goods to the nation.

He said Mr Jamali had started saying things which were said by the previous rulers.

He said that the National Security Council had been thrust upon the parliament.

He elaborated that the government was a result of horse-trading, and that President Gen Pervez Musharraf was not a constitutional president.

He said that if he wanted to be a real head of state, he should come through the electoral process and through the senate and parliament after giving up the general’s uniform.

cotton target: The federal minister for labour, manpower and overseas Pakistanis, Mian Abdul Sattar Laleka, has said that it was difficult for Pakistan to achieve the target of 10.6 million bales of cotton in the current year.

He said this at the press club on Tuesday while talking to newsmen.

He said that upto Dec 30 only 8 million bales had been produced in the ginning factories and by Jan 15 the total bales were 9.1 million, which indicated a declining trend in the arrival of Phutti in the ginning factories.

He said that since the farmers were getting good prices for Phutti, therefore they were rushing to the cotton factories and had sold all their stocks.

Mr Laleka, who is a big landlord of south Punjab and had been a federal minister for agriculture in the previous governments, further said that according to an estimate Pakistan would hardly produce between 9.7 and 9.8 million bales of cotton this year.

He said there was a shortage of cotton all over the world and a country like China was importing 2 million bales.

He said that the USA had revised its cotton target of 18.6 million bales to 17.2 million bales, and the Indian cotton crops too had been short, and its requirements would be fulfilled through import.

He said that Pakistan would benefit due to the fall in cotton production and in the coming days the cotton prices would go up all over the world.