LARKANA/SUKKUR/DADU: Activists of Jamaat-i-Islami’s farmers wing staged protests across a number of cities on Sunday against unfairly low procurement price of paddy and illegal deductions mill owners made when buying rice from growers.

In Larkana, JI workers staged sit-in at Jinnah Bagh Chowk, where local party leaders Rameez Raja and Dr Nabi Dino Baloch said in their speeches that Sindh government was betraying farmers by arbitrarily fixing crop prices and allowing unjust deductions from their produce.

He demanded the government should immediately fix official support price for paddy and establish a transparent system of weight and payment at rice mills for farmers.

Mr Raja said that instead of purchasing high-quality grain from local farmers at fair price, the government was importing substandard and expired grain from Ukraine at higher rates, which was an act of sheer foolishness.

He said that such blatant injustice against farmers clearly indicated that the government was deliberately destroying the country’s agriculture. The district administration should form special monitoring teams for rice mills to end injustices with farmers, he demanded.

Mr Baloch warned that if the government did not accept farmers’ legitimate demands, JI would step up its movement and bring farmers and public to streets in all cities and villages of the province.

He urged commissioner and deputy commissioner of Larkana to ensure that rightful owners receive their due rights.

Similar protests were held in Kashmore, Nasirabad and Pakho town in Qambar-Shahdadkot district where the protesters demanded that price of paddy be fixed at Rs5,000 per 40 kg.

In Nasirabad town, Qambar-Shahdadkot district, a large number of workers of Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) took out a procession against government failure to fix price of paddy.

The party also protested against rising lawlessness, corruption and open sale of drugs throughout Nasirabad taluka and the district.

The party leaders demanded that the price of 40 kg of paddy be fixed at Rs5,000 to provide farmers and growers relief from financial distress.

In Sukkur, JI held a demonstration outside local press club where Sukkur JI emir Zubair Hafeez and other leaders told media persons that increasing inflation, unemployment, and economic crisis in the country had made life difficult for people, especially for growers and farmers.

He warned if the government continued their indifference towards peoples’ problems and imposed on them wrong economic policies, people would barely manage to survive on lentils and bread. If the government did not provide relief to agricultural sector, it would be impossible for common man even to obtain basic food items, he said.

The protesters demanded the government formulate farmer-friendly policies, fix fair prices for farm products, and provide farmers facilities, subsidies, and easy loans.

In Jamshoro, JI workers organised a demonstration outside Kotri Press Club, demanding the government fix fair price and provide immediate relief to farmers.

Local JI leaders said that until the government ensured proper facilities were provided to farmers, Pakistan could not achieve real economic progress. Current government policies were forcing farmers to sell their crops at unreasonably low prices, they said.

Published in Dawn, October 20th, 2025