NA panel demands relief for farmers

The National Assembly Special Committee on Agricultural Products passed a resolution on Thursday, expressing grave concern over the lack of action on Prime Minister’s directive in June 2020 to provide relief to farmers on tube wells.

The resolution expressed anger over the undue and unjustified delay in implementing the directives of the prime minister, resulting in an unfair treatment meted out to the farmers. The committee expressed its dismay that the delay had resulted in open discrimination against “our primary food providers during the Covid-19 pandemic”, resulting in food supply distortions and high food inflation.

The meeting was attended by National Food Security Minister Fakhar Imam and legislators Ihsanullah Tiwana, Shandana Gulzar, Nafeesa Khattak, Ayesha Ghaus Pasha, Nawab Yusuf Talpur, Rai Murtaza Iqbal, Mujahid Khan, Iftikhar Nazir, Sher Akbar Khan, Imran Khattak, Faizullah and Zain Qureshi.

The participants highlighted that the relief in energy tariff provided to the large scale and medium industry across Pakistan must be replicated for the hardest hit farmers, “to ensure the survival of our farmers”.

The committee reiterated the directives of the prime minister to ensure zero discrimination between different sectors of production, including industry and agriculture, which provided 45% of employment to 65% of its population and 100% of Pakistan’s food security.

The committee unanimously called on the government to uphold the principle of fairness to ensure Pakistan’s food security and relief in energy costs to the hardest-hit farmers within November so that the farmers could take benefit of this relief in the current planting season.