Daily Times

KARACHI: National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Chairman Qamar Zaman Chaudhry has said that the authority would investigate the alleged financial irregularities in the establishment of red chilies drying and processing plant at Kunri.

Earlier, the business community had asked the Anti Corruption Establishment (ACE) Karachi to expedite the action into gross financial irregularities and corruption in the construction project of the chili market. Sources said that the project was lying incomplete due to alleged corruption of millions of rupees by the contractor with the connivance of officers of provincial building department Mirpurkhas.

The Sindh Planning and Development Department had expressed its dismay over this scheme after which Sindh chief secretary ordered an inquiry into the alleged financial irregularities, but all went in vain due to red-tapism. Shakeel Ahmed, a senior member of Sindh Agriculture Forum, said that the poor government policies were hurting the export potential of the country as the delay in establishment of a processing and drying plant at Kunri had incurred millions of dollar losses to chilly exporters.

Members of Red Chilly Market Association Kunri said, “We were facing liquidity crunch due to stoppage of agriculture loans on unknown reasons.” The completion of the project could have provided ample provisions to flourish the growers and traders of red chili in the lower Sindh area, which is also known as the biggest chili market of Asia, they added.

Chilies are one of the largest traded spices in the international market. The total production of red chili in Pakistan is more than 93,000 tonnes. In Sindh, chilies are grown on an area of 39,000 hectares with production of 54,900 tonnes. The largest producer of chilies in the world is India accounting for 1.9 million tonnes followed by China 1.5 million tonnes, Mexico 810,000 tonnes and Pakistan 720,000 tonnes, however world trade of chilies is around 410,000 tonnes.

A federal government’s project of establishing red chilies processing plant at Kunri with an estimated cost of Rs 193 million was still in doldrums despite a lapse of more than six years. The Small and Medium Enterprises Authority has also expressed its concern over the appalling chili export.