Ailing agri sector emerging as a threat to national security, warns Mian Zahid Hussain.

Chairman of National Business Group of FPCCI, President Pakistan Businessmen and Intellectuals Forum and All Karachi Industrial Alliance, and former provincial minister Mian Zahid Hussain on Friday said ignored agriculture sector is emerging as a threat to national security, food security and industrial sector.

The steps of the government and the central bank has started improving the economic situation but the agriculture sector can reverse all the gains, he said.

Mian Zahid Hussain said that wheat is central to the food security while cotton is a lifeline for the industrial sector and both of the crops are going down.

Talking to the business community, the veteran business leader said that hundreds of textile mills providing millions of jobs and sixty percent of the foreign exchange are dependent on cotton but the cotton production and area under cultivation is shrinking since a decade.

On one hand, the textile industry buys low-quality cotton which is also most expansive while on the other hand growers are facing financial crunch which indicates the serious problems this...