Trade with India

Pakistan will get a benefit of around Rs470 billion per annum by importing 140 million urea bags, 40 million DAP bags, 9 billion liter diesel and 15 billion units of electricity from India due to cheap transportation , cheap labor cost and communication, less time and cheap prices etc.

Pakistan Agri Forum chairman M. Ibrahim Mughal expressed these views while presiding over executive committee meeting of agri fourm here in Lahore on Friday.

It will also help to decrease certain commodities prices used by common man and decrease in loadshedding due to import of electricity will have good impact on economy and industry besides domestic and commercial usage.

Trade agreements , Preferential trade agreement(PTA) , D-8 tariff rates

 Federal Cabinet which will meet on November 29, 2011, is going to ratify the much awaited Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA) with the D-8 countries, after 5 years of its signing, official sources told.

According to the PTA, tariff above 25% will be reduced to 25 , above 15% and below 25 %will be lowered to 15 and above 10  and below 15 will be reduced to 10%. The Developing - 8  is an arrangement for development of co-operation among the 8 Muslim developing countries, which include the following 

Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan and Turkey.

The sources said, the Ministry of Commerce led the negotiating team of Pakistan for the PTA with the approval of the Cabinet obtained in December 2004. After the finalization of the agreement, a summary was moved to the PM for approval. The agreement was subsequently signed during the D-8 Summit held in Bali (Indonesia) on 13-14 May 2006.

Under article 34 , the agreement will enter into force when at least four of the D-8 members submit instruments of ratification to the D-8 secretariat. The agreement has been ratified by Iran, Malaysia, Nigeria and Turkey(five countries) and has entered into force on 25th Aug ,11.

Wheat support price in Pakistan

The PPP-led federal government, which has once again increased the wheat support price by Rs 100 per maund, has not taken into account the implications it could have on the common man , especially the poor people, besides ignoring the fact that the price of wheat is already very high in Pakistan compared with the rest of the world including the regional countries, experts said. Wheat flour price in Pakistan is around Rs 35 per kg.
Wheat support price is now Rs 1050 per maund and before this increase it was 950.

The wheat support price hike will compensate the huge  increase in urea price but they said, will not benefit the 70% small farmers, as they don’t have lands and even if they have, this increase will be meaningless for them because they have very limited farmland therefore, the higher wheat prices will definitely benefit only the feudal lords( the political elite in the higher corridors of power), who have hundreds of thousands of acres of farmland in their possession. 

Hussain Haqqani resigns on memogate scandal

 Hussain Haqqani, the embattled Pakistani Ambassador to the US, has tendered his resignation to PM Gillani and expressed readiness to face an enquiry before the top military and political leadership here at the Presidency today.

According to sources, Prime Minister  Gilani has accepted Haqqani’s resignation.

Presidential spokesman Farhatullah Babar has said that the Prime Minister demanded resignation from the US Ambassador in order to ensure a transparent enquiry into the memogate issue.

A meeting of top military and political leadership is still underway at the Presidency to grill Husain Haqqani for his alleged role in the memo issue.

President  Zardari, PM Gilani besides COAS General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani and and the ISI Chief Lt. Gen.  Shuja Pasha are present at the meeting.

On twitter  Haqqani tweeted he had requested PM Gilani to accept his resignation as Pakistan’s Ambassador to the US. 

He further tweeted “I have much to contribute to building a new Pakistan free of bigotry and intolerance. Will focus energies on that.” 

Liquid phosphate fertilizer gives higher yield

 Use of liquid phosphate fertilizer is far more better for getting significantly higher yield from the fields, said Punjab Agriculture Research Board (PARB)  on Monday.

The quantity of rock phosphate mined for fertilizer manufacture has been five to six times more than an amount of phosphate actually consumed by crops. The loss of this precious phosphate resource reflects inefficiency of farming system to get maximum benefits of using this very necessary fertiliser.

Field soils in Pakistan plains are mostly alkaline calcareous and retain approximately 80% of applied phosphate fertiliser in forms which are generally unavailable for subsequent crops, PARB further added.

The sustainable supply of phosphate fertilisers is indispensable to meet the increasing global demand for food. 

Since phosphate fertilizers are very expensive and almost 2.5 to 3 times the price of urea, therefore, improving its efficiency is of utmost importance. The efficiency of fertiliser-phosphate recovery depends on the selection of an appropriate phosphate source and adoption of wise application methodology for various crops under different soil environments. Fluid phosphate fertilizer is a good option.