Multan : In less than two weeks , Pakistan Kissan Ittehad chief , Mr Khalid Khokhar , held the second press conference on what he called as ‘Indifference of the government towards shrinking agriculture sector of Pakistan” . Mr Khalid Khokhar had held a press conference last week and alarmed the government of ” Total collapse of the agriculture sector as a result of not according priority to it”. Accompanied by other half a dozen Kissan representatives , Mr Khalid Khokhar lamented that the policy -makers gave zero response to his previous call to move immediately to save the agriculture sector from total collapse . He said ‘ I had raised the issues that are damaging Pakistan’s agriculture and called upon the policy -makers to take its immediate notice and take the measures for saving Kissan from complete devastation, but he deplored that there is zero response from the government on his alert which is alarming and absolutely painful “. He added that he drew the attention of the authorities towards worrying downfall in production of key crops in his last press conference and predicted that as a result of anti Kissan policies of the government Pakistan’s major crops yield may reduce by half as compared to last year. He said fast reducing agriculture output will increase Pakistan’s dependency on imports and it ultimately will cause irreparable loss to the farmers . He claimed that his prediction has come true as Pakistan ‘s cotton production reduced by 60 % this year . He warned that if the government continued to ignore Kissan of this country there will be no wheat production in Pakistan next year . He deplored that the flawed government policies on agriculture has brought this vital sector close to its complete destruction . He noted that the government did not allow sugar exports last year and it resulted in loss of much- needed forex exchange ,besides non-payment of Rs 20 billion to cane growers. He claimed this year , the government is again repeating the same anti- growers policy by not allowing the millers to export 1.5 million tons surplus sugar . Mr Khalid Khokhar questioned loyality of the decision-makers with Pakistan and enquired from them whether they were looking after interest of Pakistan ?. Mr Khalid Khokhar asserted that today the cost of per acre agri inputs was more than its income and in such a situation how come the growers would harvest crops in coming years. He said the growers were getting only half of cost by selling their produce and questioned as to how the farming community can survive in a situation when its not getting fair price of their produce. Mr Khalid Khokhar also questioned performance of the judiciary and claimed that judges of this country were getting huge salaries and perks without delivering justice to the people of Pakistan . He said why judges were being paid salaries in million when Pakistan ‘s judicial ranking was at the bottom in global index. Mr Khalid Khokhar said no one is worried about this country and such attitude will pose serious threat to Pakistan’s food security. He added that Kissan were ready to host a national dialogue in Islamabad to caution the government of repercussions of collapsing agriculture sector.
