Siraj for better seed, fertiliser for farmers

LAHORE Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan Ameer Senator Sirajul Haq has called upon the prime minister to arrange improved seed and subsidised fertilisers for the growers instead of talking of eggs and poultry.

Addressing a Kissan convention at Mansoora on Sunday, he said that if the government provided interest-free loans, farm machinery, pesticides and irrigation water to the farmers, they could bring about a revolution in agriculture.

The JI chief said that as in the past, the present prime minster was also surrounded by the sugar mafia due to which the ordinarily farmer seemed helpless. Sirajul Haq demanded setting up task forces at the federal and provincial level with the farmers’ real representatives in them for solution to the growers’ problems. He also called for waving GST on agricultural inputs besides provision of low-priced farm inputs under a package. He called for payment of the arrears of the growers by the sugar mills owners.

He demanded that the rate of sugar cane be fixed at Rs 250 per maund and the CPR should be given the status of a cheque to stop the exploitation of the growers at the hands of the mills owners.

On the occasion, the JI chief formally approved the renaming of the Kisan Board Pakistan as JI Kisan. The JI deputy chief and chief patron of the JI Kisan, Mian Muhammad Aslam, also addressed the convention.

Sirajul Haq said that the five per cent elite were exploiting the 95 per cent general public. He said the people sitting in the assemblies represented the elite. Mian Muhammad Aslam said that the industry in the country was running mainly due to the agriculture. He said that almost 60pc of the cultivable land in the country was lying barren due to shortage of water.

JI Kisan chief Nisar Ahmed advocate, General Secretary Choudhry Shaukat and JI kisan representatives from other provinces were also present. Minorities: Jamaat-e-Islami Secretary General Liaqat Baloch has said condemned the US government notification listing Pakistan among the countries which created hurdles in the minorities’ worship.

Addressing a gift-distribution ceremony in connection with Christmas at his residence, he said that all the minorities in Pakistan enjoyed religious freedom and it was the constitutional duty of the state to protect the minorities and their worship places. He said the US notification was an attempt to defame Pakistan but all such conspiracies could not succeed.