SUP to organise farmers’ sit-in on 27th

Karachi
The Sindh United Party announced on Saturday that it would organise a farmers’ sit-in on the National Highway and Super Highway intersection in Jamshoro on January 27 in protest against the low sugarcane support price fixed by the government.
The SUP made the decision at a central executive committee meeting held at the Haider Manzil presided over by party chief Jalal Mehmood Shah.
Talking to reporters after the meeting, Shah said farmers would block vehicular as well as train traffic.
He said the rate fixed by the government was causing a loss of Rs10.8 billion to agriculturalists and growers.
“As most sugar mills in the province are owned by members of the ruling party, the government is reluctant to increase the sugarcane price,” he said.
Of the 27 sugar mills, the JUP chief added, 16 were owned by former president and PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari.
Shah demanded that the government should fix the price at Rs182 per 40kg.
The SUP chief also rejected the formation of military courts. “These courts are parallel to the judicial system and in negation of democratic norms,” he said.
“Political parties in connivance with the armed forces are shutting down the doors of justice.”
Shah also expressed concerns over the growing religious extremism engulfing the entire country. “It is the result of the Objectives Resolution that was passed at the time of creation of Pakistan that did not separate religion and state affairs,” he said.
Shah said law and order was a provincial subject and could not be resolved unless the province was free from the clutches of the Centre that dictated terms. The SUP chief also criticised the country’s foreign and interior policies, blaming them for pushing the country to the verge of a collapse. “Both these important offices are being handed over to the ‘special forces’ which have failed to control them.”