PESHAWAR, Aug 18: Farmers on Thursday demanded that the government should dissolve the Pakistan Tobacco Board and reorganise it because it had failed to solve their problems.

Speaking at a joint press conference at the press club here, Kisan Board president Murad Ali Khan, Anjuman Kashtkaran-o-Zamindaran president and general secretary Ikramullah Khan Darrab House and Ismail Khan and Sarhad Chamber of Agriculture spokesman Zahir Shah Behlolah said the board’s job was to conduct research on tobacco but it was involved in marketing of tobacco.

They alleged that the PTB had provided substandard tobacco seeds to farmers this year, which had caused them huge losses.

They said that the board was meant to protect rights of farmers, but it had betrayed them and had been siding with tobacco companies for several years.