Karachi, Pakistan — The Fatima Group reported that it will introduce a newly formulated fertilizer in Pakistan for the next Rabi season that cannot be used in the making of bombs. The news comes as Fatima’s plans for a nitrogen plant in Indiana’s Posey County remain suspended (GM Feb. 11, p. 1) due to revelations earlier this year that the company had not cooperated fully with the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) to eliminate fertilizer-based improvised explosive devices (IEDs) used by terrorists operating in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Fawad Ahmed Mukhtar, CEO of Fatima Fertilizer Company Ltd., said it took the company approximately 18 months to develop the new fertilizer, which will be introduced to markets in Pakistan beginning October 2013 to March 2014. Fatima’s research into the new fertilizer was acknowledged recently by Lt. General Michael Barbero (GM March 4, p. 1), director of the DOD’s Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization (JIEDDO), who said JIEDDO greatly appreciated “Fatima’s initiative and innovative approach to seek a reformulated product to render CAN more inert and less explosive, thereby diminishing its effectiveness as an IED precursor material.” Mukhtar said Fatima was under no pressure from other countries, including the U.S., to develop the fertilizer, and he stressed that firms manufacturing fertilizer in Pakistan were not responsible if terrorists were using those products for designing bombs. “China, India, Iran, and Uzbekistan are bigger fertilizer manufacturers in the region that Pakistan,” he added.
Transparency Across the Fertilizer Value-Chain