JI warns govt against building trade ties with India

LAHORE:Jamaat-e-Islami ameer Sirajul Haq has warned the government against building trade ties with India without solving the Kashmir issue as per the aspirations of Kashmiri Muslims.

“The issue of trade with India was even more ideological than the financial one. The nation will not allow the government to develop love bound with New Delhi at the cost of Kashmiri blood and plight of Pakistani farmers,” he told the JI Kissan Board delegation which called on him at Mansoora on Thursday. Led by President JI Kissan Board, Shaukat Ali Chaddar, the farmers briefed Sirajul Haq about the water shortage issue in Punjab and Sindh, the economic losses that the farmers could incur in case of the resumption of trade with India and other issues related to agriculture. Sirajul Haq demanded the government withdraw GST imposed by the former government on agriculture inputs, decrease the prices of fertilizers and provide electricity to farmers at promised rate of Rs5.85 per unit. The govt, he said, should ensure interest-free loans for growers and livestock farmers. “The govt must end riba in light of Federal Shariah Court decision in all sectors”.

He the Pakistani farmers were unable to compete the Indian farmers in prevailing circumstances when they were provided costly seed, water and other agriculture inputs. It was tantamount to destroy the economy of Pakistani growers in case Islamabad allowed import of vegetables and other food items from India, he said.