PKI activists left The Mall on Saturday after successful negotiations with the government. PHOTO: ABID NAWAZ/EXPRESS
Activists of the Pakistan Kissan Ittehad on Saturday ended their sit-in on The Mall after a delegation was assured by Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif that a committee would be formed to review their demands and prepare a plan to implement them.
Agriculture Minster Dr. Farukh Javed said the government had formed a committee with representation of its different departments. The committee would prepare recommendations based on a list of demands submitted to the chief minister by the PKI delegation, he said.
Javed said the government had received all demands of the PKI. He said only those demands that were deemed reasonable would be met by the government. “Our economy is not in a good shape. The government cannot afford to meet all of their demands. It lacks resources to do so,” he said.
PKI Central President Rao Tariq Ishaq, who led the delegation to the chief minister’s secretariat, said that he believed the meeting with the chief minister was a success. He said the delegation was told that the committee’s recommendations would be sent to the chief minister by August 26. He said the PKI would resume its sit-in in front of the Punjab Assembly and expand its scope to other cities as well if the government refused to meet all demands submitted to it by the delegation.
The demands the PKI delegation submitted to the government included withdrawal of GST on all agricultural inputs, clearance of farmers’ arrears by sugar mill owners, reduction in price of electricity supplied to tube-wells, and transfer of Rs20 billion subsidy from phosphorus to urea.
Saturday’s dialogue was the third round of talks between the provincial government and the PKI during its sit-in that continued for three days. Earlier, the PKI activists had held talks with the chief secretary (on Thursday) and Law Minister Rana Sanaullah (on Friday).
On Friday, PKI activists had spread potatoes in front of their sit-in camp on The Mall and blocked it for traffic. Traffic had been diverted to adjoining roads.
The protesting farmers had said that the market prices for their products were too low and farmers were unable to meet their expenses. He had demanded that the government end trade with India or announce a support price for their agriculture products.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 23rd, 2015.
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