Farmers body announces countrywide protests from May 10

MULTAN: Farmers body Kissan Ittehad on Sunday announced to begin countrywide protests from May 10 amid the wheat crisis in the country, ARY News reported.

Speaking at a press conference, Kissan Ittehad Chairman Khalid Khokhar said that the farmers will take to the streets on May 10 against the government’s decision to import the commodity instead of procuring it from local farmers.

While alleging corruption in the import of wheat, Khokar said that those involved in corruption in wheat imports should be hanged to death.

He claimed that the “wheat mafia” earned Rs100 billion from the imports while Pakistan faced a loss of around $1 billion.

Read more: “Shehbaz Sharif was Minister of Food Security during wheat imports”

According to the farmer leader, the reserve rate of wheat was increased in an attempt to adjust the “wheat mafia.”

The farmers produced wheat in huge amounts, however, they were deprived of their earnings as the authorities had imported the commodity, he said.

The Kissan Ittehad chairman maintained that the thousands of farmers would hit the streets to protest as the government left them with no other choice.

Khalid Khokhar said that the farmers reached out to all quarters including the prime minister, army chief, director general of ISI and minister of food security, however, their concerns were not addressed.

He urged the civil society, media, lawyers and business community to participate in the farmers’ protest.

Meanwhile, Khokar asserted that the protest would be peaceful and would continue till the government decided to procure the commodity from the local farmers.

He also decried the hiked prices of urea and diesel in the country along with hours-long load shedding, saying that the Indian farmers are provided with free electricity for eight hours.

Earlier, sources said that the wheat import has caused a $1 billion loss to the national kitty while the private sector was favored in imports in Pakistan.