LAHORE, March 21: Pakistan on Sunday refused to get Australian wheat tested by a third party, saying that the purchase agreement did not include any such provision.

Wheat Commissioner Qadir Bakhsh Baloch said that Australians had conceded the fact that some sort of fungus was there in the wheat supplied by them, but while they claimed it was a harmless variety, Pakistanis believed otherwise.

He reposed full confidence in the local laboratories and scientists, saying that they could be compared with anyone in the world. For this reason, there was no need to keep on testing wheat which had already been found to be unfit for human consumption twice.

Meanwhile, a spokesman for the Australian agriculture minister on Sunday said the Australian scientists disputed evidence of Karnal Bunt in wheat shipments to Pakistan. Australia wanted to obtain a third-party, independent opinion in the UK and the US to verify its claim.

"We believe there may be some confusion in Pakistan regarding spores of a harmless fungus of rye grass called Tilletia Walkeri compared with Tilletia Indica (Karnal Bunt).

Tilletia walkeri is not a disease of wheat and does not affect its quality. The only definitive way of determining the difference between Indica and Walkeri is through a molecular test and this has not been done by Pakistan."

Australia strongly objects to the inference that its phytosanitary certification is not credible. Such a suggestion raises serious national interest concerns that go well beyond the bilateral relationship with Pakistan.

About effects of the dispute on trade relations between the two countries, he said: "Our hope following resolution of this issue is that Australia's relationship with Pakistan remains good and the future agri trade between our countries is not adversely affected.

However, it is in our national interest to verify with our wheat trading partners that Karnal Bunt does not exist in Australia. When evidence to this effect is confirmed, and I'm confident that this will be the case, we will publicise it widely."

The ships had sailed directly from ports in Western Australia to Pakistan. But apart from the inter-state controversy about the quality of wheat between Pakistan and Australia, the common Pakistani consumer has already paid the price.

Once Pakistan came under wheat crunch at the start of the year and the price of flour started soaring, an order was placed for 150,000 tons of wheat to release the speculative pressure on flour prices. However, once the wheat ships were detained at the Karachi port and doubts about its quality started spreading, dealers and retailers of flour were the first to jump on the opportunity and raise the price of their commodity further.

The price of a 20kg bag of flour went up as high as Rs300 in Karachi, Rs270 in NWFP and Rs230 in the Punjab which had sufficient wheat to meet its needs. Now, with the new crop hitting the market in Sindh, the authorities no longer seem obliged to compromise on the quality of Australian wheat.