At a news conference, Kissan Ittehad Chairman Khalid Khokhar declared that farmers would protest the government’s choice to import the product rather than buying it from nearby farmers on May 10.
Khokar suggested that people involved in wheat import corruption ought to be hung, notwithstanding his accusations of corruption in the process.
The farmer leader claimed that an attempt was made to rein in the “wheat mafia” by raising the reserve rate of wheat.
The farmers produced enormous amounts of wheat, but they lost out on their earnings because the government imported the crop, he claimed.
The head of Kissan Ittehad insisted that thousands of farmers would take to the streets in protest since they had no other option because of the government.
According to Khalid Khokhar, despite the farmers’ reaching out to the prime minister, army chief, director general of ISI, and minister of food security, their concerns went unanswered.
He invited the business community, attorneys, journalists, and civil society to join the farmers’ protest.
Khokar, meantime, declared that the demonstration would remain nonviolent until the government made the decision to buy the product from the nearby farmers.
In addition, he protested against the country’s increased urea and fuel prices as well as the eight-hour load shedding, pointing out that Indian farmers receive free electricity.
Previous reports claimed that the import of wheat had cost the country $1 billion, with the private sector benefiting from cheaper imports into Pakistan.
Apparently, even with the surplus of wheat, the ECC had officially approved wheat imports from the private sector, and the National Food Security had asked for authorization to import 3,587,000 tonnes of wheat.
