MULTAN:

Pakistan Cotton Ginners AssociationΆs (PCGA) Central Executive Committee Chairman Nawab Shehzad Ali Khan said on Wednesday that Pakistan has lost Rs50 billion due to the plunge in cotton production and that decline has come due to the governmentΆs negligence in framing a workable policy for the textile sector.

The PCGA demanded that a high level commission be constituted to investigate the real causes of decline. Presiding over a meeting, Khan said that it was a national tragedy that a national cotton policy could not be framed yet and approval of the Cotton Seed Act and Breeders Proprietary Rights Act was delayed.

He warned that the entire cotton economy would collapse in Pakistan and all textile mills and power looms would come to a standstill if the proposals of PCGA were not accepted in letter and spirit. He said that farmers would be forced to shift to other crops if incentives were not given to them.