BAHAWALPUR, Oct 14: Bahawalpur Chamber of Commerce and Industry president Chaudhry Abdul Sattar on Thursday gave vent to his disquiet over the fall in phutty price from Rs850 to Rs800 per 40kg.

Talking to newsmen here, the BCCI president demanded of the government to direct the Trading Corporation of Pakistan to purchase at least two million cotton bales from ginners to stabilize the support price of Rs925 per 40kg to protect the rights of growers and ginners.

He said the TCP, which will procure only 100,000 cotton bales if the prices fall in the open market, would not serve the purpose of safeguarding the interests of growers as claimed by the government.

Mr Sattar welcomed the assurance of CBR member sales tax Shahid Ahmed that in future sales tax officials would neither raid the retailers nor the CBR would directly serve notices to defaulters. Instead, he said, these notices would be served on shopkeepers through the BCCI.

He said the Punjab chief minister was taking personal interest in the establishment of an export processing zone (EPZ) at Rahim Yar Khan. The chamber's members, he said, would be nominated in different government department's advisory committees while a BCCI coordination committee with PCGA chairman Haji Ibrahim had been set to solve the problems of traders and industrialists of Rahim Yar Khan. He said another committee would be set up in Bahawalnagar.

The BCCI president said that Federal Industries Minister Jahangir Tareen was making efforts for the establishment of an industrial estate in Bahawalpur soon. He expressed his satisfaction over the police assistance in the movement of cash by the ginners during the current season. He hoped that the Punjab chief minister would honour his commitment to allot a plot to the BCCI for the construction of its building.

RELEASED: Former PML-N MNA Aqeelur Rehman and another activist, who were arrested on Wednesday, were released on bail by a local court here on Thursday. The judge also granted interim bail before arrest till Oct 25 to the remaining 14 office-bearers, including Punjab vice-president and former parliamentary secretary Samiullah Channar, Begum Parveen Masood Bhatti and others.

The police had arrested Aqeelur Rehman and Qayyum Azam on Wednesday and registered a case against them and 14 others under 16-MPO for violating section 144.