HYDERABAD, March 15: Sindh Abadgar Board president Majeed Nizamani said on Monday that the enforcement of free trade policy was only a few months away but the government had not adopted the policies it had agreed to join the WTO regime.

In a statement issued here on Monday, he demanded that research and development institutions should be reactivated and 100 per cent hybrid and 35 per cent certified seed should be prepared.

Mr Nizamani said the cost of production should be commensurate with international prices of finished goods for the survival of agriculture sector and agro-based industry.

He said weakness and wrong policies of the government had already crippled the agriculture sector due to the pressure of international donor agencies. He said it was a high time the government formulated viable policies to safeguard the national economy.

The SAB president demanded that outstanding dues, quality premium and surcharge of sugarcane growers should be paid to them by getting the stay order vacated.

Mr Nizamani said the GST on fertilizers, pesticides, insecticides and agricultural machinery should be abolished and their availability and quality be ensured and prices of diesel, electricity and agricultural machinery should be fixed at least for two seasons.

He welcomed the federal government's decision to purchase 500,000 tons of surplus sugar and proposed that the GST on sugar should be withdrawn. Welcoming the government's decision to appoint "inter-ministerial committee on sugar industry", Mr Nizamani suggested that the word cane should be added in the committee and it should be renamed as the "inter-ministerial committee on cane and sugar industry".

QUACKS: The Sindh Doctors' Alliance and Contract Doctors Forum on Sunday offered support to Hyderabad health EDO Dr Agha Tariq in the campaign against the quacks and urged the doctors to cooperate with the EDO in this regard.