May 05, 2008	Monday	Rabi-us-Sani 28, 1429

HYDERABAD, May 4: Hundreds of pilgrims who had proceeded to Iraq to visit religious places have been stranded on the Iraq-Iran border as they are not allowed to enter Iraq and the foreign ministry of Pakistan has not done anything to help them.

Allama Altaf Hussain Al-Hussaini and other leaders of the Shia Ulema Council, Sindh chapter disclosed this at a news conference at the press club here on Sunday.

They said thousands of people from Pakistan visited Karbala, Najaf and Kazmain in Iraq every year but regretfully thousands of Pakistanis had been refused entry into Iraq this year.

They said that the stranded pilgrims had obtained legal visas and paid tens of thousands of rupees to the Iraqi embassy in Pakistan yet they were not allowed entry into Iraq on flimsy grounds.

They said the Pakistan foreign ministry and Iraqi embassy had been approached on several occasion in this regard but all in vain.

They condemned the silence of the foreign ministry on this important issue and wondered why the pilgrims were not allowed to enter Iraq after obtaining legal documents.

They claimed pilgrims from other countries were allowed to enter Iraq without any hassle but discrimination was being observed against Pakistani pilgrims. This was a great injustice with them, said the Shia Council leader.

They appealed to the president and prime minister, co-chairperson of PPP, ministers for foreign and the religious affairs to hold talks with the Iraqi government on this issue.

They further demanded of the ministry of religious affairs to increase the Haj quota of Shia community commensurate with their population which was their legal right.

Answering questions, they said that more than 1,300 pilgrims, including 70 from Hyderabad, were stranded on Iran-Iraq border whose visa would expire on May 17.

Growers demand

The Sindh Chamber of Agriculture has again called upon the Sindh government to direct sugar mills to pay dues of sugarcane growers without any delay to enable them to cultivate Kharif crops.

The demanded was raised at a meeting of the chamber held here on Sunday. The senior vice-president of the chamber, Mir Murad Ali Talpur, chaired the meeting.

It pointed out that the sugar mills were withholding payment to cane growers which had created host of problems for them.

It demanded that the growers should be paid their dues according to two different notifications in which the government had fixed sugarcane rates at Rs67 per 40kg and in the subsequent notification, the rates were reduced to Rs63 per 40kg on the demand of mills.

The meeting further demanded that legal action should also be taken against the mill owners for not making payments to growers within a specified period.It said that the sowing season for cotton crop had already started but the growers had no money to purchase seed and fertilisers.

It said that if cotton crop was not sown by may 15 at the latest, the farming community would suffer irreparable losses which will further add to their problems.

It said that due to poverty poor farmers were forced to sell their livestock to slaughterhouses as a result of which the prices of milk had sky-rocketed and the livestock population was on the decrease.

Expressing concern over the acute shortage of water due to rotation programme, the meeting urged the government to take effective measures to ensure water supply for crops.

The meeting demanded of the government to announce support price for cotton immediately to enable growers to cultivate maximum cotton.

It also expressed concern over the pest attack on date crop in Khairpur and urged the government to send a team of experts to Khairpur to control the disease.

Dr Shahnawaz Shah, Anwar Bachani, Agha Nasrullah, Mohammad Khan Sarejo, Misri Khan Mallah and others attended the meeting.