The Lahore High Court on Friday expressed serious concerns over non-submission of reply in petition against Pakistan (Amended) Seed Act 2015 and warned that Plant Breeders Rights registry would be restrained from functioning if the comments were not filed till June 22. The court was hearing the petition filed by Human Voice, a local non-government organization seeking protection of the farmers' rights.
On last hearing, the court had sought copy of the resolution passed by Punjab Assembly, with directives to the federal government to submit parawise comments. However, neither the copy of the resolution was filed nor parawise comments were submitted.
The petitioner's counsel Sheraz Zaka contended that the impugned Seed Act was passed without the approval of the cabinet and under Article 144 of the Constitution, the amendment made in seed act could not have been passed by the federal legislature as it is a provincial subject. He argued that the Act deprived the farmers of their traditional farming practices and instead the multinational corporations had been accommodated to protect their genetically breeding practices which was contagious to the environment, anti competitive harmful for the national economy.
He further argued that neither Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly nor any other assembly passed such resolution and in such a situation the parliament could not pass the bill without such resolutions from the provinces.
He said under the impugned law, farmers would be fined and imprisoned for preserving, selling and exchanging seeds, a tradition that had been in vogue for centuries. He said that the impugned law had made it mandatory for farmers to buy seeds from a licensed company or its agent and they had to do so every time they cultivate a new crop. He stated that this restriction would create a monopoly of companies and make farmers dependent on multinational corporations. He said that it was injustice to millions of small and landless farmers whose food insecurity would be aggravated by this law.
He said that many European countries had already banned genetically modified crops because of their severe adverse impact on environment and Pakistan should also do the same. The court after hearing the petitioner's counsel at length issued notice to the respondents, sought replies by next hearing.