CM Murad blames PTI for farmers’ woes

Says federal govt exported urea at cheap rates, then made expensive imports

HYDERABAD:

Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah on Friday blamed Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf's federal government for impoverishing the farmers owing to its flawed agricultural policy.

Addressing a tractor rally, organised by Pakistan Peoples Party in Larkana district on Friday, the CM accused the center for exporting urea, wheat and sugar at cheaper rates and importing the same at expensive rates.

"Agriculture is the backbone of the economy and it is being destroyed by the incapable government," Shah asserted. Hundreds of tractors participated in the rally and the CM said similar rallies were taken out across the province on January 24.

He added that the momentum of the protest movement against the PTI's government will be built and on February 27 PPP's chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari will set off to Islamabad from Karachi on a long march.

He credited the PPP's central government, which remained in power from 2008 to 2013, for never allowing the shortage of wheat, sugar and other important crops besides the fertilizers to occur. Shah said the PPP was organising the protests to highlight how the unbridled inflation has deprived farmers, peasants, labours and the poor people from making their ends meet.

Read More: Minister for monitoring urea supply

"The people are being burdened with one tax after another one." He reiterated that while the Sindh government is blamed for the shortage of urea, wheat, sugar and other crops, the federal government does not explain how the local crops are finding their way out of the country's borders which are the responsibility of the center.

The provincial minister Syed Nasir Hussain Shah bemoaned that the farmers are not being paid the right price for the crops because of anti farmers policies of the center. He deplored that despite being an agricultural country, Pakistan has to import edible items from other countries.

"Sindh produces surplus crops of wheat and rice, besides others, but the province still encounters shortages." The CM's adviser Aijaz Ahmed Jakhrani said the people of Larkana division will participate in large numbers in Bilawal-Bhutto led long march to oust the PTI's government.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 22^nd, 2022.