Kisan Package is a big fraud: Ch Pervaiz Elahi

Lahore: Pakistan Muslim League (PML) senior central leader and former Deputy Prime Minister Ch Parvez Elahi has termed Kisan Package of Nawaz Sharif a very big fraud and said that the farmer suffers Rs 40 thousand per acre loss in rice crop whereas relief of only Rs 5000 per acre has been announced whereas the farmers are still looking for previously announced package incentives and relief cheques.

He said this while addressing an enthusiastic Kisan Convention in Grain Market Naukhar near Gujranwala in which thousands of farmers raised their hands to reject the Prime Minister’s package. On arrival in the Kisan Convention, Ch Parvez Elahi was enthusiastically greeted by welcome slogan chanting, bhangra dance and dhool. His address was mostly in Punjabi and the audience endorsed what he said by slogans and clapping.

Ch Parvez Elahi said that this package is in fact packing the farmers, farmers want incentives and facilities of our tenure and full price for their crops, during our govt in Punjab we had remitted agricultural taxes, provided cheap electricity and loans, procured every grain, farmers should support us, we will Insha-Allah bring them back prosperity of our tenure for them. He asked which farmer travels from Gajju Mata and Shahdara or from Rawalpindi to Islamabad whereas Rs 160 billion have so far been wasted on jangla bus in Lahore and Rawalpindi and every month two billion rupees are paid as subsidy but farmer growing grain for whole country is victim of hunger and there is no subsidy for him while in Japan, USA, Turkey and other developed countries maximum subsidy is given to the agriculture sector and his friend Modi also is giving 37 billion dollars subsidy to the farmers and there agricultural electricity is one rupee per unit only.

He said that during our tenure we had cut down half the electricity price for farmers, now Insha-Allah we will provide one rupee per unit electricity and subsidy equal to that of Indian farmers and interest free loans, all taxes on farmers will be remitted, seed and fertilizers prices will be reduced and import of potatoes and tomatoes from India will be stopped for ever, support price of cotton, rice and sugarcane will be fixed and ensured implementation and procurement of every grain of wheat will also be. Ensured, crops will be insured during last tenure education was free up to matric for children of the farmers and now it will be free up to B. A. level, their talented and intelligent children will be sent to USA and Europe for higher education on government expense, concreted water courses will be restarted which they have shut.

He said campaign which Pakistan Muslim League is running for Kalabagh dam that this also for progress and prosperity of farmers of Pakistan, adequate water will become available to all four provinces and lands will be brought under cultivation.

Congratulating on successful convention, he said that workers are sincere asset of the party who are standing with us for last eight years despite all sorts of difficulties, 70 per cent of total area of the country is located in Punjab where 60 per cent are farmers but the farmer of the Punjab is being destroyed under a well-conceived plan, destroying farmer means destroying Pakistan, cost of rice per acre is Rs 80 thousand and income Rs 40 thousand, this is the case of cotton and sugarcane also, during our tenure cotton production was more than India and Pakistan was the third major rice exporter in the world, every grain of rice and wheat was being procured but today India is ahead of them per acre production and practically their international market, India has also capture our vegetables market, the govt is importing potatoes and tomatoes worth billions of rupees annually from India which is adversely effecting farmers of not only Punjab but also of Balochistan, even now more than 50 per cent wheat is lying in the markets and the govt is not ready to lift it at its own fixed price whereas the farmers are being baton charged by police on roads, farmers are asking they should be told about iron seed so that they also benefit from this. He said that prices of seed, fertilizers and agricultural medicines and electricity rates are beyond the reach of ordinary farmer, during last 7 years prices of Urea and Phosphate fertilizers have increased by about 700 per cent, laboratories established by us for preparing new seed are non-functional, farmers want their right, if the farmers are to given relief they should be provided what we had given them. He said we had done away with patwari culture so that corruption is eliminated but by announcing the package Nawaz Sharif has tried to make patwari culture alive again.

MNA Tariq Bashir Cheema, Ch Zaheeruddin Khan, Ch Tanvir Azam Cheema, Ch Imtiaz Seekho, Ch Fayyaz, Salim Seekho and Ch Afzal Bajwa also address the convention while Dr Azeemuddin Zahid Lakhvi, Bao Rizwan, Ansar Baryar, Bilal Mustafa Sheerazi, Engineer Shehzad Elahi, Rana Istikhar, Ch Gul Nawaz Cheema, Barkatullah Seekho and other PML leaders were seated on the stage.