Farmers community has warned government of organising peaceful protest in front of the national and provincial assemblies in case the government failed to address their problems in a week.
The general body meeting of Pakistan Kisan Movement (PKM), chaired by its President Mian Ashfaq Ahmed expressed grave concerns on government's slumbering over multiplying problems of agro-based industry.
The general body also approved the annual report of the association presented by the Secretary General Chaudhry Hanif Gujjar. Large number of farmers from across the country attended the meeting, said a spokesman of the association on Friday.
Speaking on the occasion, president Pakistan Kisan Movement said the main issue of lingering sugar crisis in the country was largely affecting farmers' community. Crash of sugar prices in the open market has directly hit the payments to growers from sugar millers but the government has failed to take notice of this serious problem in spite of letters written to the government high-ups and press statements of the farming community in the press.
Sugarcane growers further feared that the sugar industry might also collapse like the textile, while upcoming crushing season would play havoc with the farmers in case the government failed to address the sugar price issue on war footings immediately.
They said farmers were united to hold peaceful protest demonstrations for the acceptance of their demands. They urged President General Pervez Musharraf to immediately intervene in the situation and direct the Secretaries' Committee on Sugar to bring an end to the crisis in the larger interest of farmers' community.