Being a well-informed stake-holder of Pakistan’s large agricultural sector, I condemn the recent proposal given by the National Fertilizer Corporation (NFC), to be appointed as a Fertilizer Regulatory Authority on a Federal level. This is evidently a failed organization’s attempt to deceive the nation and usurp more funds and power, despite its proven incompetence over the past 4 decades. Unfortunately, NFC symbolizes the failure of Public-Sector business-model. So, appointing it as the regulator will surely be a disaster. NFC was established in 1973, to enhance the productivity of several public-sector fertilizer plants, but it failed miserably in achieving the expected goals, as its factories were incurring major losses every year. Due to this poor performance, the government finally decided, in 2008, to privatize NFC’s three factories - Pak-Arab, Pak-Saudi and Pak-American fertilizers. After causing major damages to the fertilizer industry and the economy, NFC has become a parasite on the national exchequer, without any significant role to play in the industry. Hence, it cannot be trusted to regulate the valuable fertilizers sector, which has invested billions of Dollars and is the highest tax-paying industry in the country, while it also plays a pivotal role in agricultural growth - the backbone of Pakistan’s economy. One of NFC’s subsidiaries – The National Fertilizer Marketing Ltd. (NFML) was established to minimize the build-up of surplus inventories, caused by the seasonality of fertilizers demand. It manages logistics and storage through bulk-warehousing at strategic locations, with a capacity of more than 115,000 Metric Tons. However, over the years, NFML has failed to perform well, despite the subsidy support. The government should adopt an alternative strategy; It can close down NFML and delegate the task of distributing imported fertilizers through the vast networks of private fertilizer manufacturers, who have proven expertise and perform better in providing this essential commodity to the farmers more efficiently. This way, the government’s expenditure can be drastically reduced and the fertilizer prices can be brought down. ADNAN ALI MUGHAL,  Islamabad, February 9.