Pakistan Kissan Ittehad (PKI) President Khalid Mehmood Khokhar and All Pakistan Kissan Foundation (APKF) Chairman Syed Mehmood-ul-Haq Bukhari Thursday appreciated Prime Minister Imran Khan for taking action over sugar crisis and welcomed the commission report in this regard.
Addressing a press conference at Lahore Press Club (LPC), they demanded the government take strict action against the culprits responsible for the crisis, adding that farmers and consumers have always been exploited in the past. They urged the government to relocate the sugar mills, set up illegally in the cotton belt and restore the region as per crop zones. They demanded withdrawal of illegally enhanced capacity of sugar mills, adding that the amount paid less to sugarcane growers in 2017-18, approved by the commission report, should be recovered from the said mills and returned to the growers. They said that the support price of sugarcane, cotton, rice, potato, pulses and oil-seeds should be announced for making the country self-sufficient in these crops.
The APKF chairman demanded the government announce a package for the farmers whose crops had been affected by the locust. The Kissan leaders urged the government to implement the commission reports and recommendations without any delay.
