HYDERABAD: Thousands of people held a seven-hour sit-in at Hyderabad Bypass on Superhighway on Tuesday against what they described as sugar mills owners’ refusal to pay the official price of cane to growers and the provincial government’s inaction over the defiance.

The Sindh government has fixed the cane price at Rs182 per 40 kgs as demanded by growers but some sugar mills have challenged the relevant notification in court. It claims that most sugar mills were observing the official price.

The sit-in was organised by leaders of various opposition and nationalist parties to express solidarity with cane growers.

They include former chief ministers Arbab Ghulam Rahim and Liaquat Ali Jatoi, Leader of the Opposition in the Sindh Assembly Shaharyar Mahar, Syed Jalal Mahmood Shah and Dr Rahila Gul Magsi.
They urged the federal government to intervene in the growers-millers dispute and establish an ‘anti-monopoly commission’ to resolve the issue.

They vowed to continue the protest until the implementation of the Sindh government’s Nov 17, 2014 notification regarding the new sugar cane price.

They also announced holding of a similar sit-in on Feb 11.

The sit-in on Tuesday began at 10am and continued till 5pm.A large number of activists belonging to the organising parties, including the Pakistan Muslim League-Functional, Sindh United Party, Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, took part in the protest.Speaking to the protesters, Dr Arbab said that cane growers were not getting the official price of their produce because most of the sugar mills in Sindh were owned by the ‘omni group’ headed by Pakistan Peoples Party co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari. “It is not an issue of [chief minister] Syed Qaim Ali Shah because he is helpless before Mr Zardari,” he said.

MPAs Aijaz Shah Shirazi, Jam Madad Ali and Nusrat Sahar Abbasi, Ismail Rahu of the PML-N, Nadir Akmal Leghari of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, Ghazi Salahuddin of the MQM, Dr Niaz Kalani of the JSQM, former district nazim Dr Rahila Gul Magsi, Qadir Ranto of the Qaumi Awami Tehreek, as well as Abdul Majeed Nizamani and Mahmood Nawaz Shah of the Sindh Abadgar Board, spoke to the protesters.

Syed Jalal Mehmood Shah said that it was not a political party but a ‘mafia’ that was ruling over the Sindh province and usurping its resources. “It is the ‘Zardari mafia’ that needs to be shaken and not the chief minister,” he said.

Some resolutions adopted at the gathering demanded implementation of the Sindh government’s Nov 7, 2014 notification regarding the cane price; an end to the practice of deducting 10-30 per cent from the actual weight of cane at the time of sale/purchase; payment of dues pertaining to the quality premium 2013-14 to growers; abolition of the illegal zoning; and penalising those sugar mills not starting cane crushing on time, i.e. latest by Oct 15.

Published in Dawn, January 28th, 2015

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