LAHORE: Criticising the government, PTI Punjab Kisan Wing General Secretary and MPA Ejaz Shafi said that closing the border will not stop terrorism, but it will surely shut down the economy.

If the government wanted to close the border, he said, it should have taken alternative measures so that farmers in Punjab were able to sell their produce at better rates.

Flanked by PTI Punjab Kisan Wing President retired Maj Ghulam Sarwar, retired Brig Mushtaq and MPA Imtiaz Sheikh at the Lahore Press Club on Friday, Mr Shafi said Punjab used to export citrus and potato, but was now compelled to sell it low cost – even lower than the production cost. “As much as 40 percent of kinnow used to be exported, but now no exports are happening,” he lamented.

From July to November 2025, he said, food items imports had increased by 28.73 percent and sugar imports rose by 18.5 percent compared to last year. This was unfortunate because Pakistan already lacked dollars as its exports were now negligible, he said, adding that cotton, potato, and maize crops had also been destroyed.

Mr Shafi said the TikToker government was ruining agriculture and asserted that farmers were not the mafia but those who were making farmers’ lives miserable were. In 2024, he said, wheat farmers suffered a loss of Rs22 billion, and this year the loss was touching Rs55 billion.

This year, he said, four resolutions on wheat were submitted in the Punjab Assembly. Stating that the governments never pointed out the lack of quorum in assemblies, but the PML-N government was doing so in the Punjab Assembly. He said that it was the government’s responsibility to keep quorum complete in the assembly.

He alleged the pro-government hoarders had purchased wheat from farmers at Rs1,800 to Rs2,000 per 40kg, hoarded it and now, six months down the line, selling it at more than double the rate.

As the wheat crisis emerged, he said, the TikToker government had given a new lollipop that the private sector would buy wheat, while it had entered into an agreement with the private sector. “The prices of urea, DAP, diesel, electricity and medicine have skyrocketed, while the prices of wheat, cotton, potato, maize, and kinnow are falling,” he lamented.

Published in Dawn, January 24th, 2026