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Plan grounded

Plan grounded A US proposal to send soyabean worth US $80 million to Pakistan as part of a reimbursement deal for the money it took to supply Islamabad with F-16 fighter aircraft in the late eighties has run into heavy weather. The aircraft could not be supplied after the US imposed economic and military sanctions against Islamabad in the early nineties.

The proposed soyabean deal has generated a controversy in Pakistan over the product's being genetically engineered. Some food rights groups in the country have even moved court seeking a moratorium on the import.

They contend that genetically modified (GM) food affects human health and could be dangerous for the environment. These activists feel that the court should ban such products till Pakistan has its own laws and guidelines to deal with GM food so that it can independently assess its impact.

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