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Urea distribution dictated by Wattoos

By Ahmad Fraz Khan 

According to reports of the National Fertiliser Marketing, two sons of Industries Minister Mian Manzoor Ahmed Wattoo lifted 122,941 bags of fertiliser. Wattoo rejected the reports. - APP/File photo
LAHORE: Politicians, especially the Wattoos from Depalpur, seem to have dictated the distribution of imported urea, if the internal monitoring reports of the National Fertiliser Marketing (NFML) are anything to go by.
According to these reports, during a four-day period earlier this year (Feb 4-7), after the arrival of imported urea at Kissan Store, Okara, two sons of Industries Minister Mian Manzoor Ahmed Wattoo lifted 122,941 bags of fertiliser and another relative, Ali Nawaz Wattoo, got 950 bags. The Kissan Store is a big distribution centre which caters for adjoining districts as well.
Talking to Dawn, Mr Wattoo, however, denied receiving fertiliser bags and termed the NFML reports a ‘pack of misleading lies’.
The National Fertiliser Marketing is a subsidiary governed by Mr Wattoo’s ministry.
‘No one from my family received these bags,’ he insisted. ‘Some farmers might have been recommended by the ministry to get bags, but certainly not my family.’
The record of the NFML, however, showed that the bags in question were given to two sons of the minister.
Not only the Wattoos, but other politicians got their share as well. The reports show that Capt Rai Mujtaba (MNA) received 34,913 bags, Pir Samsan Ali Bokhari of the PPP (8,556 bags), Riaz Fatyana of the PML-Q Forward Bloc (2,250 bags), minister of state for interior Tasneem Qureshi (1,949 bags), another minister Raza Ahmad Kirmani (1,277 bags), MNA Rai Muhammad Khan Kharal (10,954 bags) and Okara Naib Nazim Rao Jamil (2,165 bags).
According to another report, Mian Manzoor Ahmad Wattoo visited the Kissan Store (Okara) on Feb 6 and instructed the storekeepers: ‘Fard and jama bandi (revenue record) of those having recommendation letters should not be checked.’
The minister and his sons also made telephonic calls to the store supervisor to ‘deliver urea to the farmers recommended’ by them, the report added.
In one instance, two truckloads of urea were taken away from the Kissan Store at gunpoint by supporters of local politicians and the company is in the process of recovering money, a spokesman for the firm alleged.
Commenting on fertiliser distribution, he said the company had an elaborate network of hundreds of dealers and thousands of sub-dealers for distribution. But the ministry decided to bypass them this time and opted for direct sale to farmers. However, the spokesman added, the ministry did not have the capability to carry out the task.
Mian Mazoor Ahmad Wattoo, nevertheless, insisted that there was ‘no network of dealers, and the company had to go for direct sale’ - a position contested by NFML officials.
They insist the ministry simply avoided contacting dealers who had been part and parcel of distribution for decades.
Mian Ijaz, the NFML managing director, said the entire distribution was carried out ‘according to government policy’: ‘direct sale to farmers and those carrying recommendation letters’.
About the abandoning of dealers and sub-dealers, he said: ‘The network was held in abeyance due to sale of NFC plants. The company had no time to develop new network because of time and demand pressure.
‘The company now has time before fresh arrival of urea and is in the process of developing a network of dealers for fresh distribution.’
In reply to a question about his company’s record showing sales against the name of sons of the industries minister, along with MPAs and MNAs, Mian Ijaz said the bags were issued ‘on their recommendation, not to them’.
The company’s record, however, contradicts him, showing direct sale to politicians.
 ‘The price of one bag of urea in the open market was at least Rs 100 more than the government-approved price of Rs 710 per bag. Hence people who managed to secure 100,000 bags might have made over Rs 10 million in two or three days or used it as political favour,’ an employee of the company observed.