SWABI: A farmers’ representative body has demanded that the control of Pakistan Tobacco Board (PTB) should be transferred to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government under the 18th Amendment to the Constitution as the province produced all varieties of the tobacco.

The demand was made by the members of the Kashtkar Coordination Council (KCC) at a meeting here on Friday. The participants lauded MPA Babar Khan for moving a resolution in the KP assembly on Thursday, demanding of the federal government give the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa control over collecting revenue from the tobacco crop instead of the federal commerce ministry. The resolution was passed unanimously.

The participants said that more delay in that regard could cause anger among the tobacco growers and the parliamentarians. “No more delay is acceptable to us,” said Mohammad Azam Khan, the KCC president

A tobacco grower, Mohammad Ali Dagiwal, told the participants that last year the federal government collected Rs85 billion revenue from the tobacco crop in the province. “Why the KP has been deprived of such a big amount,” he questioned.

The growers’ leaders demanded that the PTB chairman should also be appointed from the tobacco growing areas of the KP.

“A PTB chairman from the tobacco cultivating region will be in a better position to be aware of the problems of the growers, and will also have the better knowledge of how to improve the crop’s quality to compete in the international market,” they demanded.

The participants said that majority of former PTB chairmen lacked knowledge about the crop because they didn’t belong to tobacco growing areas.

“One of the PTB ex-chairman, Rasul Bakhsh Palejo, hailed from Sindh, which was quite strange as the Sindh people know nothing about tobacco crop,” said one of the participants.

Liaqat Yousufzai, KCC’s general secretary, pointed out the tenure of the present PTIB chairman had ended on Jan 14, but the federal commerce ministry was still dragging feet on appointing the next chairman.

Mr Yousufzai, whose name was also sent by PTI-led Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government to the federal commerce ministry for appointment as PTB chairman, last year, said that ‘imposition’ of decisions of the ministry on the growers and PTB were not acceptable.

He also accused the federal ministry of toeing the line of multinational and national companies in devising policies.

The meeting unanimously passed a resolution, calling on the KP chief minister to take up the issue at the upcoming meeting of the Council of Common Interest.

MEETING: Local PTI leaders and district administration officials met here on Friday to defuse the situation arising out of a brawl between the KP assembly speaker’s brother, Adnan Khan, and additional assistant commissioner over arrest and registration of FIR against three traders.

Sources said that the meeting was still underway and hoped that the issue would be resolved amicably.

Published in Dawn, November 1st , 2014