PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government opines the federal government should continue with the National Bio-Safety Committee instead of devolving the responsibility to grant approval to genetically modifled organisms to the provinces, according to officials.

A well-placed official told Dawn that the provincial government had officially communicated its opinion to the federal government, suggesting that in absence of knowledge base in the federating units, the national bio-safety committee should be maintained to continue working in its present form.`If you ask me, honestly speaking we don`t have the expertise and knowledge to be able to decide about the registration of genetically-modified seeds,` said the official with some professional experience in bio-technology.

According to official circles, after the passage of the 18th Constitutional amendment in April 2010 the provinces are legally empowered to bring in their own agricultural laws previously regulated and governed under the federal laws.

In this respect, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government tabled four agriculture sector related bills in the provincial assembly on January is, last, including the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa pesticides bill, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa far services centres, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa plant breeder rights, and the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa seeds bill.

The last two have not gone well with the private sector stakeholders, including small farmers, seed dealers, and the non-profitable organisations working inthe agriculture sector. They described the two laws as an attempt on the part of the provincial government to establish multi-national companies` monopoly in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa at the cost of small farmers and local crop varieties.

The proposed Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Seeds Bill envisages a mechanism for registering GM seeds in the province, linking it with the `commercialisation permission from bio-safety committee established by the Government to the effect that the genetically modified variety/hybrid shall have no adverse on the environment, human, animal or plant life and health.

Information collected from the officials concerned revealed that the provincial agriculture department inserted the clause despite the fact that the provincial government had in the past communicated its inability to have a biosafety committee of its own.

`With some professional background in the field of nuclear sciences, I can safely say Khyber Pakhtunkhwa wouldbe disaster if it opts for setting up a biosafety committee of its own: now or even in a few years time,` said the official abreast of the proceedings of the national bio-safety committee.

Involving representatives from all the four provinces, their respective environmental protection agencies, the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission, the federal ministry of food security and research, and the Northern Areas administration, the national bio-safety committee has been set up under the international Cartagena Protocol on BioSafety to which Pakistan is a signatory.

The committee aims at ensuring and regulating GMOs, their introduction to local markets, and establishing a biosafety system in the country.

Besides, in collaboration with the Technical Advisory Committee of the Pakistan Environmental Protection Agency, the bio-safety committee is mandated to monitor and evaluate GMOs for field or laboratory tests/research and their commercial productionor introduction to the local markets.

The committee, said a Peshawarbased official, was scheduled to meet on March 12 at Islamabad to look into over one hundred applications seeking permission for various purposes, including field and lab trials.

According to officials, 32 of the applications are for seeking permission for conducting laboratory trials of Bt cotton varieties. Three of the 32 applications, said an official, had been submitted by the National Institute of Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering.

Similarly, some applications have been submitted for seeking permission to conduct trials of GM wheat resistant to drought and salinity. In one case, the permission has been sought for conducting trials of GM sugar resistant to fungus. In another instance, the bio-safety committee`s approval had asked for conducting trials of GM maize crop.

Apart from the National Institute of Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering`s applications, the requestsfor approvals submitted by the University of Agriculture-Faisalabad, the Centre of Excellence in Microbiology, and Multi-National Companies, including Monsanto and Syngenta, are also on the National BioSafety Committee`s agenda for March 12.A senior functionary of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government said the knowledge base and expertise developed over the past few years by the national bio-safety committee with representatives from the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission was unparallel to little-to-no expertise available at Khyber Pakhtunkhwa vis-à-vis GM seeds developed by applying molecular techniques of modifying, recombining or transferring genes.

That`s why, the province had communicated its perspective to the centre that despite the window of opportunity resulted in by the 18th Constitutional Amendment, the federal government should not devolve the bio-safety committee`s mechanism to the provinces.