Pervaiz Elahi condemns action against farmers

LAHORE
Pakistan Muslim League (PML-Q) senior leader Ch Pervaiz Elahi has condemned baton charge on farmers, torture and arrest in different cases and said anti-farmer rulers are not allowing them to raise voice for their genuine rights.
The former Punjab CM in a statement issued on Wednesday supported all demands of Pakistan Kissan Ittehad and said the government should restore all facilities and incentives for farmers including cheap electricity, fertilizers, seed, credit as well as sufficient availability of water and tax exemption which were given to them during the PML-Q government. He said the farmers were tortured by the police because they wanted to raise their voice against heavy taxes and for fair price for their crops but they were not even allowed to address the press conference. He said it was the responsibility of the government to procure crops from the cultivators on the government fixed procurement prices. The rulers were importing Indian vegetables and committing economic murder of their farmers through unjustified taxes on fertilizers, agriculture insecticides and other articles. He said in other countries farmers were given special incentives but here the rulers hostility and enmity against farmers was increasing everyday whereas in other provinces more facilities in agriculture sector including cheap electricity were available to farmers compared to Punjab and this was the reason that ratio of agriculture growth was going backward.