MULTAN: Farmers of Punjab under the banner of Pakistan Kissan Ittehad (PKI) on Monday held a demonstration and threatened to stage a protest in front of the National Assembly if their demands were not met during the next 15 days.

A large number of farmers led by PKI President Khalid Mehmood Khokhar gathered at Nawan Shehr Chowk and blocked the busiest thoroughfare for traffic. They also put cotton on fire in protest against what they said the government’s indifference to agriculture sector.

Addressing the protesters, Khokhar alleged that some vested interests in the government were proposing ‘anti-farmer’ policies, benefiting some ministers and their families.

“The vested interest groups were very active in the budget preparation and even the recommendations of a special committee on agriculture headed by the speaker were ignored. The committee had recommended that the fuel adjustment charges be abolished on electricity, two per cent GST on fertiliser be waived, instead 3pc tax on imported fertiliser was imposed which results in rise of Rs100 for DAP and Rs120 for Potassic fertilisers,” he said.

Khokhar said Pakistan spent paltry amount on research as compared to Bangladesh and Nepal. The ex-finance minster’s commitment of allocation of Rs700 million for cotton research was not honoured during the budget preparation.

He said the government had announced agriculture emergency and such type of situation required allocation of a special fund.

“The [lack of] seriousness of the government can be gauged in locust control which is devastating millions of acres but neither the federal nor the provincial government made any allocation for it, rather the federal government is relying on contributions and donations from pesticide companies in Sindh and Balochistan,” he said.

Khokhar said: “The PKI is setting 15-day deadline to the government for fulfilling our demands and thereafter we will stage a protest demonstration in front of the National Assembly.”

The demands are: duty should be imposed on cotton import without any delay, 2pc GST on fertiliser and 3pc Value Addition Tax on imported fertilisers be abolished, electricity charges for tubewells be reduced to Rs4.35 per unit immediately, support/indicative price of cotton be announced forthwith, cotton be included in the agriculture emergency programme, 10pc GST on cotton ginners be withdrawn, fuel adjustment surcharge be done away with and allocation for agriculture research be enhanced to 2pc of agricultural GDP.

Published in Dawn, July 16th, 2019