ISLAMABAD: A meeting of the Standing Committee on National Food Security and Research was held on Wednesday under the chairmanship of MNA Malik Shakir Bashir Awan to discuss godowns/warehouses for wheat storage all over the country and wheat procurement by the Pakistan Agricultural Storage and Services Corporation Ltd (PASSCO) for the current year. The National Food Security and Research minister apprised the committee that PASSCO godowns in Karachi having capacity of 17,600 million tonnes were under illegal occupation of private parties for last 22 years. Due to untiring pursuance of PASSCO, he added, these godowns have been vacated after a protracted legal battle, which is a great achievement. He further informed that Pakistan is having surplus wheat for last 3 years. The PASSCO managing director apprised the committee about the functions of PASSCO including the provision of food security at national level, by maintaining strategic reserves of wheat and supply of wheat to deficit provinces like Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) as well as to the armed forces. He further informed that the total requirement/liabilities of PASSCO during 2016-17, as approved by the ECC, are 1.797 mm tonnes, which includes 1.00 mm tonnes of national strategic reserves. He also apprised the committee that currently, PASSCO’s receivables have accumulated to the alarming level of Rs 74 billion. The committee strongly recommended that the Ministry of Finance should release Rs 74 billion on account of receivables of PASSCO on priority basis. The committee also recommended that a policy might be framed for the timely disposal of surplus wheat to avoid the payment of huge amount on account of markup. The committee further recommended that the import duty on agricultural machinery might be reduced to maximum extent to marginalize the monopoly of tractor manufacturing units in Pakistan. The committee extended the period of the sub-committee to finalise its report. MNAs Capt (r) Muhammad Safdar, Ch Iftikhar Nazeer, Tahir Iqbal, Syed Iftikharul Hassan, Shahnaz Saleem, Khalida Mansoor, Parveen Masood Bhatti, Pir Shafqat Hussain Jilani, Faqir Sher Muhammad Bilalani, Dr Fouzia Hameed and Muhammad Salman Khan Baloch attended the meeting.