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| Tuesday, 13 April 2004 |
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Pakistan facing law suit for rejecting Australian wheat SYDNEY, Monday (AFP) A Pakistani trading company whose shipments of Australian wheat were rejected because of alleged contamination by a fungus not found in Australia is threatening a 30-million US dollar law suit against Pakistan, it was reported Monday. The Australian newspaper said Karachi-based importer Tradesman International alleges the real reason for the rejection of the shipments was profiteering by corrupt Pakistani government officials. Pakistani authorities refused to allow the four shipments to be unloaded two months ago after locally administered tests allegedly detected the fungal disease, Karnal bunt, which imparts a fishy smell that makes the grain unfit for human consumption. Karnal bunt has never been detected in Australia and Australian experts who tested the grain said they found none in the shipment. Fearing the dispute could undermine Australia's 3.5 billion dollar a year wheat export industry, Prime Minister John Howard wrote personally to Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf asking him to have a third country test the wheat but Pakistan declined. Tradesman International, the Pakistani company that bought the wheat for 23 million US dollars, says the grain was subsequently purchased by Sri Lanka, Indonesia and the United Arab Emirates, proving there was no problem with it. Tradesman International chief executive Haroon Suleman also told the paper the Pakistani government's subsequent decision not to seek replacement shipments for the rejected cargoes showed there were other motives behind the claims of contamination. Suleman said the real reason for the rejection was that corrupt officials were profiting from a rise in local wheat prices after news of a shortage became public. The price of wheat flour in Karachi markets rose by some 50 percent in the year to March, according to Pakistani news reports. "There were certain people in Pakistan who were conniving with the stockists and the holders of (Pakistani) wheat because there was a shortage and the wheat was sold in the markets at the highest ever prices in the history of Pakistan," Suleman said. "We have charged them with negligence, nepotism and corruption in certain quarters of the government." Suleman is demanding the return of a 1.0 million US dollar bond Tradesman was obliged to lodge with the government when it won the contract and which was forfeited on the grounds that the wheat was not delivered. He is also threatening legal action for up to 30 million US dollars in compensation and costs, which included 100,000 dollars a day from the ships that were stranded for more than a month as negotiations went on to try to secure acceptance of the order. |
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