Govt urged to accord priority to food security

United Business Group of the Federation of Pakistan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) Thursday urged the government for according top priority to food security in the wake of RussiaUkraine conflict as the global market continues to remain unsteady.

Talking to a delegation of industrialists and traders led by Momin Ali Malik, Chairman United Business Group Shahzad Ali Malik urged the government to look to secure other sources of import at the earliest before more countries start imposing bans to guarantee their own food security.

He said the export ban by India is a concern as Bangladesh has been importing significant amounts of wheat from its neighbors over the past years, whereas the wheat prices witnessed about 25 percent growth in local markets of the region.

Speaking on the occasion, Momin Ali Malik urged the need for exercising all options, starting with securing new import opportunities,fully supporting local production through the cheap availability of fertilizers and other inputs to enhance local crop output .

An American citizen has returned a relic to Pakistan as part of a repatriation of 19 antiquities to four countries, the Guardian reported on Friday.

The report said that John Gomperts took the decision after reading news in the Guardian about the return of stolen antiquities and realised that the items he had inherited from his grandmother were worth up to £80,000 and could have been sourced from "illicit excavations" since they had no collecting history.

The report added that he wanted to do the "right thing legally and ethically" by returning the items to Pakistan, Italy, Greece and Cyprus respectively. He returned the items after his two siblings agreed to the move.

The report said that one item belonged to Pakistan, two to Cyprus, four to Italy and 12 to Greece.

It did not describe the artefact that was returned.

"It seemed like the right thing to do … I read stories on repatriation and I thought: we have these pieces that are 2,500 years old from other countries; we should explore whether we can give them back," the Guardian quoted him as saying.

However, the report added that he had no idea regarding how to go about the repatriation process and thus approached Professor Christos Tsirogiannis, a former senior field archaeologist at the University of Cambridge and a specialist in antiquities and trafficking networks, for help.

"He reached out to me, which is a first for an owner of unprovenanced antiquities, asking for advice to do the right thing," the report quoted the professor as saying. It added that he advised Gomperts to approach the respective embassies of the countries and hand over the items to them.

"The countries showed their appreciation, with notes of thanks to Gomperts and Tsirogiannis," the report stated.

Last month, the US government repatriated 46 artifacts back to Pakistan, including the most notable $1.1 million Buddhapadha, which now fills the central space at the Islamabad Museum.