MULTAN: State Minister for Commerce and Textile Haji Muhammad Akram Ansari Monday said climate change, irregular rains and water shortage were playing havoc with environment and agriculture. Addressing the sixth international moot on “Healthy plants necessary for agriculture survival” organized by Bahauddin Zakariya University Plant Pathology Department, the minister said environmental threats had become key challenge to the survival of agriculture and climate changes had exposed vegetables and orchards to different new diseases. He stressed the need of transferring new research to farmers to protect agriculture and enhancing the per acre production. The minister said farmers’ survival lies only in equipping themselves with day-to-day new researches. He said the government was going to introduce more packages for agriculture sector and farmers, saying that plan of subsidizing imported seed was underway. He proposed enactment of law on tree cutting. BZU acting vice-chancellor Prof Dr Bashir Ahmed Chaudhry, Department of Plant Pathology chairperson Prof Dr Rashida Atiq, Central Cotton Research Institute Director Zahid Mehmood, scientists Prof Dr Wasinta Kumar, Prof Dr Xe Phaing Wang from China, Prof Dr Muneer Abu Haider from Canada, Prof Muhammad Arshad Javed from Malaysia, Prof Harpinder Singh Randhawa from Canada and Prof Dr Denis from United States also spoke. FBR staffers stage demo for arrears’ release: Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) employees on Monday staged demonstration for release of arrears of job posting allowance which had been pending since 2001. All Pakistan FBR Employees Welfare Union chairman Tahir Khakwani said that former president Gen (retd) Pervez Musharraf had announced across the board allocation of Informal Job Posting allowance for those FBR employees who had developed the skills of computer programming and the employees who got a Bachelor degree in 2001. He said that the FBR released the allowance to a few employees in 2001. The remaining employees started receiving allowance since 2007. The FBR Employees Welfare Union moved the Supreme Court against this discrimination. The SC gave verdict in favour of employees in 2016 and ordered release of all arrears but the FBR had reluctant in complying with the SC orders. Khakwani said the Prime Minister’s Special Advisor Haroon Akhtar Khan visited the FBR Headquarters few days back and declared that the FBR had collected record revenue of Rs1,946 billion in 2013 and Rs3,362 billion in 2017. “All employees collected revenue with the joint efforts to ensure recovery targets.” He demanded the prime minister and the finance ministry to pay arrears from 2001 to 2007. He warned that if their demands are not met, they will go on strike across the country because the number of affectees is more than 27,000.
