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Parc facing financial crunch

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Agriculture Research Council is faced with a severe financial crunch due to Finance Ministry's inability to release funds against the Council's allocated budget, official sources told Fortuna on Saturday.

Official sources said Pakistan Agriculture Research Council had received from the Ministry of Finance a meager Rs 5 million during eight months upto March against a budgetary allocation of Rs 40.58 million for the current financial year.

Finance Ministry sources told this agency that this unwanted development had led to suspension of work on the ongoing research work at the PARC as farm scientists and policy makers were awaiting release of approved funds.

The sources said, faced with a financial crunch the Agriculture Ministry had now written to Secretary-General Finance Moin Afzal asking that the remaining amount be releases at the earliest.-Fortuna