5pc elite exploiting 95pc common people: Siraj

LAHORE: Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) ameer Senator Sirajul Haq that the 5 percent elite were exploiting the 95 percent general public as he maintained that the people sitting in the assemblies represented the elite.

He 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.

JI chief said that as in the past, the present prime minister 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 Rs250 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.

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.