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Corruption charges

Minfal to receive army monitors shortly

RECORDER REPORT

ISLAMABAD: The Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock (Minfal) is likely to receive special army monitoring team from the GHQ in a couple of days, sources said here on Monday.

According to informed sources the monitoring team is being deputed to find out the cause of corruption, as in the tenure of last government deals on the import of wheat and fertiliser had raised many eyebrows. The Forbes case and the import of expired fertilisers is being investigated by the National Accountability Bureau.

However, sources said that the paper work is in order in fertilizer and wheat import cases, while Forbes deal was awarded by Board of Investment (BOI) despite the serious reservations of Minfal on the deal. The NAB had asked for details and these were provided but yet they have not detected any ill-will in the deals.

The general perception is that everything done by us is wrong and this has led the military to take a last ditch effort to set things in order. The monitoring team will have a vital role to play, sources said.

The most worrying thing for the economic planners is that despite the continued increase in the agriculture growth the country is still dependent on imports. The government wants to achieve self-sufficiency in wheat, edible oil and tea to reduce the import bill. But they somehow have developed a perception that the civilian bureaucracy will not deliver the goods and they themselves will have to set everything in order, sources added.