The introduction of the Prohibition of Smoking and Protection of Non-Smokers Bill in Senate, the upper house of parliament has rung alarms in the tobacco growing districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Mushahid Hussain Syed, a PML-Q Senator has tabled the bill in the Senate to prohibit all kind of tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship of tobacco industry; or any person will not advertise, promote and sponsor tobacco and any tobacco product on media or any place and any vehicle.
The development has spread waves of concerns in the growers attributing the steps towards the prohibition of the cultivation of tobacco to deprive them of their top cash crop and different kind of social sector humanitarian activities underway in the tobacco growing districts under the head of Capital Social Responsibility (CSR).
In this connection, the tobacco growers of district Swabi held a meeting in the Hujra of Afsar Khan at Malikabad, Union Council Chaknodah to review the situation in wake of the introduction of bill in the Senate. A large number of tobacco growers attended the meeting and deliberated upon the issue.
The growers were unanimous in their opinion that tobacco is their lone cash crop and main source of livelihood and vowed to resist any attempt of the government towards prohibition of the cultivation of the crop.
Speaking on the occasion, Khan Sher, a grower of Yar Hussain said that Swabi is the largest Virginia tobacco producing districts of the province followed by other districts including Mardan, Charsadda, Mansehra and Buner. He said that the farmers of the district have small agriculture land holding, which is not sufficient for other crops, particularly vegetables. He said that due to the lack of demand and lower prices other agricultural product use to into waste while on the other hand tobacco is the sole crop, whose sale is insured with the industry. He said that the crop is cultivated on the demand of the tobacco companies after fixation of the support price for each year. He urged the government for not snatching the mean of livelihood from them as they are highly dependent on tobacco crop and is like oxygen for their life.
Azam Khan, president of Growers Co-ordination said that beside growers, the crop is also highly beneficial for the country and used to generate revenue of over Rs 100 billion in head of Federal Excise Duty (FED). He was of the opinion that instead of its prohibition, the government should pay subsidy to its growers.
Another grower, Liaquat Yousafzai said that more than 1.5 million people are associated with the tobacco business directly and indirectly while the number of growers is 80,000.
He said that out of 180 million to 200 million populations, a large number of people are using tobacco and on abolition the country will use to import tobacco from other countries that cost heavy foreign exchange.
Similarly, Mohammad Ayaz, another grower said that the crop generate economic activity to the volume of Rs 300 billion in the country. He said that though agriculture is a provincial subject, but in case of tobacco crop it is under the control of centre, which is sheer injustice with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
He cautioned that any attempt to ban the cultivation of the crop will bear dangerous consequences and situation in the tobacco growing districts become worse than Waziristan. He attributed the high ratio of literacy in district Swabi to the production of tobacco crop.
The prohibition of the promotion of tobacco products will also bear negative impact on the activities, which include the establishment of an Eye Hospital established under the auspices of the tobacco industry, which is providing eye treatment facilities to the people of the area while the industry also operating a mobile dispensary and had installed water filtration plants in various villages of the district.
Furthermore, the industry is also providing financial assistance to non-governmental organisations in the provision of missing facilities in public sector schools and holding of summer camps in schools to prevent the trend of child labour in the province. Any attempt towards ban on the cultivation of the crop will deprive the people of these facilities.
The growers of District Swabi have vowed to resist all kind of attempts for banning the cultivation of tobacco crop and threatened to stage sit-in in front of the parliament house to foil any such move.
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