TCP tender for rice purchase

The Basmati rice traders have to submit the following. This tender is akin to the revival of the RECP era by TCP purchasing rice in the market. It is also going back from the principle of private sector rice exports being promoted as opposed to the government entering into actual trading rather than facilitating export.
It also reverses from the precedent set when TCP facilitated a government-to-government deal for Iran which could also be done in the case of Sri Lanka. This negative move is not acceptable to the trade.
TCP, a government body, does not have the jurisdiction to legitimise an illegal variety known as D98 and further call it Basmati rice.
This variety is not a Basmati variety and has not been approved at all by the government of Pakistan.
How can an organisation under the Federal Ministry of Commerce invite tenders for an illegal variety that purports to damage the heritage of Basmati rice that is the product of the Punjab by providing it a semblance of legitimacy? This is simply not acceptable to the Basmati rice farmers, millers, traders and exporters.
With great difficulty and painstaking effort, correction was done at the GAFTA level and then at the European Union level.
The EU recognises TCP as their sole inspecting agent for all the rice exports to EU. Please consider the damage this move can do to the image of TCP in the EU and how our opponents in the EU can misuse this development against us.
We are actively pursuing geographic indication to be made into law in Pakistan and this is being sponsored basically by the Basmati trade to safeguard our interests while other products may benefit from it also when it comes into force.
What adverse effects will such ill-considered tenders have on our geographic indication movement?
It also negates the basic concept of our "Plant Breeders Rights Bill" that is under-process and is needed for us to obtain legal protection under WTO.
Therefore, the trade earnestly requests TCP to cancel or withdraw this tender invitation for an illegal variety most urgently and enter into damage control to safeguard our name in Basmati rice.
(The writer is President Consortium of Basmati Rice Exporters)