Kisan Board Pakistan (KBP) has announced to hold a protest camp from November 13 to 15, 2012 in Islamabad to press the government for resolving the problems being faced by the growers. The camp is part of a movement launched by the Board entitled ‘save growers-save Pakistan’. Programme in this regard had been finalised and twelve committees were working day and night to meet the growers and convince them for participation in the protest camp.
KBP Central President Sardar Zafar Hussein Khan in an open letter addressed the national media, political and religious leaders and masses had alleged that the agriculture sector was near death due to unjustifiable long load shedding and closure of agricultural tube wells due to sky-rocketing prices of electricity and diesel.
He termed the protest camp as a mile stone for start of a country wide growers’ movement. Talking about other problems faced by the agriculture, Sardar Zafar in his letter said that sector was facing 50 percent shortage of water due to less rains and Indian water aggression against Pakistan. He said that rulers had no interest in the agriculture and they were busy in fighting with each other to save their rule. He said that sugar, flour, cotton and fertiliser factories owned by the ruling parties’ members had brought the farmers to bankruptcy.
He said strength of an economy lies in strengthening of the agricultural sector and the Board had launched this movement to apprise the rulers about the issues being faced by the farmers. KBP Chief warned that if issues being faced by the agricultural sector were not given immediate attention, the situation would lead Pakistan to a destiny of Ethiopia and Somalia. He announced that the protest would soon be spread all over the country if the demands were not met at the earliest.