Farmers to follow through with National Highway blockage

HYDERABAD: As the deadline to implement the official price of sugar cane comes to an end, farmers have threatened to block the National Highway on December 23 for an indefinite sit-in.

At a press conference at the Hyderabad Press Club on Thursday, representatives of the Joint Sugar cane Growers Action Committee announced that they will keep the highway, which connects Karachi with the rest of the country, blocked until their demand is met.

The committee consists of the Sindh Abadgar Board (SAB), Chamber of Agriculture, Abadgar Ittehad and Agriculture and Research Council. The farmers from across Sindh will gather in Hyderabad for the protest, said SAB President Abdul Majeed Nizamani.



The government, under the Sindh Sugar Factories Control Act, 1950, fixed the rate at Rs182 per 40 kilogrammes (kg) but the farmers complain that the sugar mills, in violation of the notified rates, are paying them between Rs120 to Rs140 per 40 kg. The representatives claim that this exploitation is enabled because of the involvement of Pakistan Peoples Party Co-Chairperson Asif Ali Zardari.