Karachi, Aug 28: Pakistani authorities have rejected a request by local traders to import 200,000 tonnes of wheat from India, saying grain from across the border was contaminated by Karnal bunt fungus, government officials said on Wednesday. The import of Indian wheat was planned by a group of flour mill owners in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province for supplies to neighbouring Afghanistan.
Pakistan's wheat commissioner Qadir Bux Baloch said the request to allow overland transport of Indian wheat was turned down at an agriculture ministry meeting held earlier this month.
"We have told them that they cannot use land routes or any other means for transportation of Indian wheat, which carries Karnal bunt disease," Baloch told Reuters by telephone from Islamabad.

Baloch said the government had instead provided 207,000 tonnes of wheat to those traders, who had planned imports from India, to meet their Afghan commitments.
"We don't want their business to suffer, we have wheat and we made special allocations of 207,000 tonnes for them," he added.
Bureau Report