KARACHI, LAHORE - The Union of Small and Medium Enterprises (Unisame) has invited the attention of the commerce ministry to the discrimination of the REAP, which placed the SME rice exporters in a separate category, depriving them of their rights of voting for the managing committee by labelling them as associate members. In a press briefing Unisame president said the SME rice exporters paid the same amount of membership renewal fees and are old members but despite their seniority they have been listed as associate members and side lined. He said this is unfair and the SME rice exporters feel left out of the mainstream. Meanwhile, the rice exporters have threatened the government that they would go on strike from Oct 10 if the decision given by the federal secretary commerce declaring the elections of the Rice Exporters Association of Pakistan (REAP) as null and void, is not reversed. The President-elect REAP Jahangir Malik accompanied by other office-bearers told reporters this while addressing a joint press conference here on Tuesday. He said that the election of their association was held in Sept, and their opponent group fielded four candidates as well. Two candidates contested the election while other two approached the court which directed them to approach the Secretary Commerce. However, he said, the secretary later declared the whole election process as null and void. Malik claimed that this decision of the secretary had disturbed the whole functioning of the association. They appealed to the President, Prime Minister and Federal Commerce Minister to intervene the matter and resolve it at the earliest. They claimed that they were striving hard to enhance the rice exports to capture world markets.