LAHORE, May 25: Jamaat-e-Islami has demanded of the rulers to rid the country of the multinational companies which are squeezing and draining our resources with an aim to enslave Pakistanis and make the country their colony, especially in the Agriculture sector where their atrocities have not only deprived the peasants of their income but also plundered the masses by artificial increase in prices. This demand was made in a resolution passed by JI shoora in its meeting at Mansoorah chaired by Qazi Hussain Ahmad. The Shoora specifically pointed out that Multinational Companies have created artificial crises in agri sector by multiplying milk prices and other commodities such as wheat, rice and pesticides etc. The shoora demanded that the main characters of wheat crisis must be booked and punished with strict sentences to avoid such plunders in future.

The shoora said government is forcibly purchasing wheat at Rs. 625 per 40 kg from local growers while the international rate is Rs. 1200 to 1500, After wheat crisis was created, government imported wheat worth of Rs. 16 billion which amount to enmity with local growers and patronizing the foreign cultivators.

The Shoora demanded that growers must be provided with subsidies to enable them get stronger to counter the WTO. It reminded the rulers that US, Europe and our neighbors provide subsidies and facilities to peasants while our government drain their resources and energies on a number of pretexts.

The shoora indicated that billions of rupees of loans of influential politicians and bureaucrats were written off while peasants were booked and punished for small loans. It also demanded the immediate revoking of the clause of TRIPS in the WTO terming it a grave conspiracy against our agri sector which, if not revoked would devastate the whole agri sector by depriving the peasants with their access to traditional seeds.

The shoora also demanded end to sugar millers' victimization of the growers saying they had insured over 12 billion rupees of the dues to the peasants. It also demanded to end the luxuries of rice research institutes saying they failed to discover solution to certain diseases to the rice which left the peasants at the mercy of foreign companies which are earning billions of rupees from the poor Pakistanis.


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